NONLINEAR MODEL OF STABILITY STUDY OF SYSTEM "SURFACE CONTROL – ACTUATOR" OF MANEUVERABLE UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE

Abstract

One of the important problems of the designing of maneuverable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is to ensure aeroelastic stability with automatic control system (ACS). One of the possible types of aeroelastic instability of UAV with ACS is loss of stability in the system "surface control – actuator". A nonlinear model for the study of the stability of the system "surface control – actuator" is designed for solving problems of joint design of airframe and ACS with the requirements of aeroelasticity. The electric actuator is currently the most widely used on highly maneuverable UAV. The wide bandwidth and the availability of frequency characteristic lifts are typical for the modern electric actuator. This exacerbates the problem of providing aeroelastic stability of the UAV with ACS, including the problem of ensuring the stability of the system "surface control – actuator". In proposed model the surface control, performing bending-torsion oscillations in aerodynamic flow, in fact, is the loading for the actuator. Experimental frequency characteristics of the isolated actuator, obtained for different levels of the control signal, are used for the mathematical description of the actuator, then, as dynamic hinge moment, which is determined by aeroelastic vibrations of the surface control in the air flow, is calculated. Investigation of the stability of the system "surface control – actuator" is carried out by frequency method using frequency characteristics of the open-loop system. The undeniable advantage of the proposed model is the simplicity of obtaining the transfer functions of the isolated actuator. The experiment by its definition is a standard method of determining frequency characteristics of the actuator in contrast to time-consuming experiments for determining the dynamic stiffness of the actuator (with the surface control) or the transfer function of the actuator using electromechanical simulation of aeroelastic loading of the surface control, that also used in research stability problems of the system "surface control – actuator".

Keywords

• unmanned aerial vehicle (uav)
• surface control
• electric actuator
• aeroelastic stability
• system "surface control – actuator"
• nonlinear model