The miniature rotary wing UAVs are now tending to become the new tools of the soldier, with the versatility of missions they can be used. Their main advantage concerns their ability to combine the hovering and translational fast flight in narrow and congested environments. We propose the study of a new and atypical UAV concept called GLMAV (Gun Launched Micro Air Vehicle), which must bring a hybrid projectile/UAV very quickly on a site of interest, using the energy delivered by a portable weapon. The first task concerns the modelling of the aerodynamic GLMAV model. The parametric identification of the aerodynamic model is then realized from experimental load data, that can be a priori quantified by a persistent-excitability-algebraic-criterion. We then propose two filtering techniques to estimate the unknown aerodynamic parameters but needful to determine the aerodynamic environment in which the vehicle operates. In addition, to compensate the failure of embedded sensors that can affect the linear speed information after the shooting, we propose a reduced-order estimator to conserve a good linear speed information. In both estimation problems we prove the stability of the proposed observers. Finally, we propose a control scheme for the stabilization of the aircraft in the quasistationary flight mode from a linearized GLMAV model. The efficiencies of the proposed methods are illustrated through numerical results and experimental tests.
Modelling, estimation and control of a coaxial rotor unmanned aerial vehicle