Knowledge Bank

This work details the development of a framework, which can be used to design and test control algorithms for emerging Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicle designs in either a simulated or real-world environment. Most of the existing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) designs utilize traditional Proportional-Integral-Derivate (PID) controllers. It is an instrument used to regulate the position and orientation, which limits their adaptability for controlling complex vertical takeoff and landing vehicles. Current development and research have shown improved responses in certain aircraft designs by testing new control strategies through numerical simulations. However, a comprehensive analysis on the various interdependency among sub-systems of UAV is not considered in some of the current simulations. The framework proposed in this work utilizes a building-block analysis of the sub-systems of UAV to incorporate new aircraft designs and advanced flight control laws. The analysis provides an accurate estimation of real-world aerodynamic characteristics, interaction with physical obstacles, and the effects of operating in a dynamic/uncertain wind environment. The end goal is to integrate the control strategies developed using this framework into a real aircraft to improve its performance over the traditional PID based system.