Real-time monitoring of flight tests with a novel fixed-wing UAV by automatic flight guidance and control system engineers

Martin E. Kugler, David Seiferth, Matthias Heller, Florian Holzapfel

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Advanced unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) become increasingly popular inter alia as low-risk demonstration platforms for new aircraft-design concepts and technologies in aviation industry and research. Due to the experimental nature and complexity of such systems, flight tests regularly require the support of design engineers who monitor and assess the behavior and performance of the aircraft and its subsystems while it is in flight. At the Institute of Flight System Dynamics of the Technical University of Munich (TUM-FSD), the flight guidance and control system for the novel 'SAGITTA Demonstrator' UAV has been developed. It enables fully-automatic operation of the aircraft, which has been successfully demonstrated during the maiden flight campaign in July 2017. This paper presents the challenges of real-time monitoring of a fully-automatic UAV and explains how they were solved within the maiden-flight test campaign of the SAGITTA Demonstrator. The ground station setup and displays that were applied to supervise the flight guidance and control system are presented. Experiences gained during the flight tests are gathered and recommendations derived.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2018 4th International Conference on Control, Automation and Robotics, ICCAR 2018
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages141-146
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781538663387
DOIs
StatePublished - 13 Jun 2018
Event4th International Conference on Control, Automation and Robotics, ICCAR 2018 - Auckland, New Zealand
Duration: 20 Apr 201823 Apr 2018

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2018 4th International Conference on Control, Automation and Robotics, ICCAR 2018

Conference

Conference4th International Conference on Control, Automation and Robotics, ICCAR 2018
Country/TerritoryNew Zealand
CityAuckland
Period20/04/1823/04/18

Keywords

  • SAGITTA research demonstrator
  • automatic flight guidance and control
  • flight test
  • human-machine-interface
  • in-flight monitoring
  • unmanned aerial vehicle

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