• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.114-121
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• 2019

Tailless aircraft have advantages of low visibility compared to conventional aircraft, but drawback of poor stability as well which makes designing controller difficult. The controller design is more difficult, especially when the center of gravity moves due to store release or fuel consumption during flight. In this paper, an L1 adaptive controller is proposed as a way to overcome these problems. The reliability and performance of the controllers were verified by non-linear simulations. RPV Flying Quality Design criteria were used for design criteria. Using the simulation, it is shown that the adaptive controller maintains stability of the unmanned aircraft for sudden large change in the inertial properties. It is also shown that the calculation burden can be reduced when it is used with the gain scheduling method.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.422-428
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• 2019

A tailless or Blended-Wing-Body(BWB) shaped configuration is highlighted for UCAV with low RCS characteristics. The BWB configuration is characterized by its directional static instability and low controllability. To control the directional movement of the BWB configured vehicle, directional thrust vectoring equipment or drag rudder typed control surfaces which utilize the drag differences of the wing can be considered. This paper deals with a BWB shaped configuration using a spoiler and describes the lateral-directional aerodynamic characteristics of the vehicle. In addition, it is shwon that the lateral-directional motion can be controlled effectively by using the classical PI control structure. This control law is verified by flight test and showed adequate for the tailless BWB shaped UAV.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.44 no.7
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• pp.552-561
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• 2016

In this experimental study, the dynamic stability derivatives of a tailless lambda-shape UAV are estimated from time history data of aerodynamic moments measured from the internal balance while the test model is forced to oscillate at given frequencies and amplitudes. A 3-axis forced oscillation apparatus is designed to induce decoupled roll, yaw, pitch oscillations respectively. The results show that the roll damping derivatives remain stable at the entire range of angle of attack tested, whereas the pitch damping derivatives become unstable beyond $15^{\circ}$ angle of attack. The amplitude and frequency have little impact on roll damping derivatives while the smaller amplitude and frequency of oscillation improves the pitch stability. The yaw damping derivative values are fairly small as expected for a tailless configuration. The results indicate that the proposed methodology and test apparatus area valid for estimating the dynamic stability derivatives of a tailless UAV.