Coordinated roll control of conformal finless flying wing aircraft

Thomas R. Shearwood; Mostafa R. A. Nabawy; William J. Crowther; Clyde Warsop

doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3286848

Coordinated roll control of conformal finless flying wing aircraft

Thomas R. Shearwood, Mostafa R. A. Nabawy, William J. Crowther, Clyde Warsop

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Attitude control of tailless aircraft is typically achieved through a system of trailing-edge flaps that produce coupled control effects in pitch, roll and yaw due to changes in lift and drag distributions. This paper presents a novel control allocation method which allows conformal trailing-edge controls to generate yawing moments with no coupling, thereby simplifying the required control suite. The method is demonstrated through modelling of a coordinated roll manoeuvre of a tailless aircraft in which yaw control is provided by trailing-edge flaps only. For a typical tailless aircraft configuration, it is shown that a coordinated rolling manoeuvre can be achieved with a reduction of at least 30% of the required control deflection compared to solutions using non-conformal controls such as split drag rudders.

Original language	English
Journal	IEEE Access
Early online date	16 Jun 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3286848
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 16 Jun 2023

Keywords

Aerospace Simulation
Attitude Control
Control design
Nonlinear control systems
Unmanned aerial vehicles
Conformal aerodynamic controls
Control allocation
Drag rudder

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10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3286848Licence: CC BY

Aerospace Engineering
Smith, K. (PI), Filippone, A. (PI), Crisp, N. (PI), Mcgrath, C. (PI), Roberts, P. (PI), Hollingsworth, P. (PI), Utyuzhnikov, S. (PI), Nair, M. (Researcher), Parslew, B. (PI), Bojdo, N. (PI), Wood, K. (PI), Nabawy BSc, MSc, PhD, MRAeS, SMAIAA, FHEA, M. (PI), Zhong, S. (PI), Ladosz, P. (PI), Carew, T. (PI), Quinn, M. (PI), crowther, W. (PI), Ozer, O. (Technical team), Marsh, C. (Technical team), Kennaugh, A. (Technical team), Nadeem, J. (PGR student), Kent, B. (PGR student), Agir, M. B. (Researcher), Efimov, I. (Researcher), Wijacinski, K. (PGR student), Az Eldin, H. (PGR student), Malik, M. (PGR student), Lopez Pardo, B. (PGR student), Mackintosh, J. (PGR student), Yates, P. (Technical team), Muirhead, I. (PGR student), Treblow, S. (PGR student), Singh, K. (PGR student) & Gurbuz, M. T. (PGR student)
1/09/10 → 31/08/35
Project: Research

Cite this

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title = "Coordinated roll control of conformal finless flying wing aircraft",

abstract = "Attitude control of tailless aircraft is typically achieved through a system of trailing-edge flaps that produce coupled control effects in pitch, roll and yaw due to changes in lift and drag distributions. This paper presents a novel control allocation method which allows conformal trailing-edge controls to generate yawing moments with no coupling, thereby simplifying the required control suite. The method is demonstrated through modelling of a coordinated roll manoeuvre of a tailless aircraft in which yaw control is provided by trailing-edge flaps only. For a typical tailless aircraft configuration, it is shown that a coordinated rolling manoeuvre can be achieved with a reduction of at least 30\% of the required control deflection compared to solutions using non-conformal controls such as split drag rudders.",

keywords = "Aerospace Simulation, Attitude Control, Control design, Nonlinear control systems, Unmanned aerial vehicles, Conformal aerodynamic controls, Control allocation, Drag rudder",

author = "Shearwood, \{Thomas R.\} and Nabawy, \{Mostafa R. A.\} and Crowther, \{William J.\} and Clyde Warsop",

year = "2023",

month = jun,

day = "16",

doi = "10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3286848",

language = "English",

journal = "IEEE Access",

issn = "2169-3536",

publisher = "IEEE",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Coordinated roll control of conformal finless flying wing aircraft

AU - Shearwood, Thomas R.

AU - Nabawy, Mostafa R. A.

AU - Crowther, William J.

AU - Warsop, Clyde

PY - 2023/6/16

Y1 - 2023/6/16

N2 - Attitude control of tailless aircraft is typically achieved through a system of trailing-edge flaps that produce coupled control effects in pitch, roll and yaw due to changes in lift and drag distributions. This paper presents a novel control allocation method which allows conformal trailing-edge controls to generate yawing moments with no coupling, thereby simplifying the required control suite. The method is demonstrated through modelling of a coordinated roll manoeuvre of a tailless aircraft in which yaw control is provided by trailing-edge flaps only. For a typical tailless aircraft configuration, it is shown that a coordinated rolling manoeuvre can be achieved with a reduction of at least 30% of the required control deflection compared to solutions using non-conformal controls such as split drag rudders.

AB - Attitude control of tailless aircraft is typically achieved through a system of trailing-edge flaps that produce coupled control effects in pitch, roll and yaw due to changes in lift and drag distributions. This paper presents a novel control allocation method which allows conformal trailing-edge controls to generate yawing moments with no coupling, thereby simplifying the required control suite. The method is demonstrated through modelling of a coordinated roll manoeuvre of a tailless aircraft in which yaw control is provided by trailing-edge flaps only. For a typical tailless aircraft configuration, it is shown that a coordinated rolling manoeuvre can be achieved with a reduction of at least 30% of the required control deflection compared to solutions using non-conformal controls such as split drag rudders.

KW - Aerospace Simulation

KW - Attitude Control

KW - Control design

KW - Nonlinear control systems

KW - Unmanned aerial vehicles

KW - Conformal aerodynamic controls

KW - Control allocation

KW - Drag rudder

U2 - 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3286848

DO - 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3286848

M3 - Article

SN - 2169-3536

JO - IEEE Access

JF - IEEE Access

ER -

Coordinated roll control of conformal finless flying wing aircraft

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Aerospace Engineering

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