Handling Qualities Analysis of an Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle for Agricultural Spraying

Abstract

The use of unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) for the most diverse aeronautic missions is a reality. Then, with the rise of precision agriculture (PA), the viability of the incorporation of this technology in the countryside on both big and small proprieties is under study. This work aims to analyze the handling qualities of an UAV with a mission of pest control chemical spraying. With this objective, aircraft data was used to analyze the eigenvalues of the aircraft modes. Then, the impact of mass and inertia variation during its mission was studied. Also, the longitudinal and latero-directional dynamics were evaluated based on the Cooper–Harper scale. The results found indicate that all aircraft modes are stable for both full hopper and empty hopper conditions. Moreover, the determined handling quality grades of the UAV in the Cooper–Harper scale indicate the need for some correction applied by the pilot during flight.

Keywords

• agricultural aircraft
• agriculture
• drone
• handling qualities
• remote handling
• flight simulation