Nonlinear Model Predictive Velocity Control of a VTOL Tiltwing UAV

This letter presents the modeling, system identification and nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) design for longitudinal, full envelope velocity of a small tiltwing hybrid unmanned aerial vehicle (H-UAV). A first-principles based dynamics is derived identified from flight data. It captures important aerodynamic effects including propeller-wing interaction stalled airfoils, but still simple enough on-board online trajectory optimization. Based on this model, high-level NMPC formulated which optimizes throttle, tilt-rate pitch-angle setpoints in order to track longitudinal trajectories. We propose investigate different references suitable regularize optimization problem, both offline generated trims as well preceding solutions. In simulation, we compare with frequently reported dynamic inversion approach H-UAV control. Finally, validated experiments through series transition maneuvers, demonstrating good tracking capabilities envelope.