Recently there has been a tremendous growth of research emphasizing control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) either in isolation or in teams. As a matter of fact, UAVs increasingly find their way to applications, especially in military and law enforcement (e.g., reconnaissance, remote delivery of urgent equipment/material, resource assessment, environmental monitoring, battlefield monitoring, ordnance delivery, etc.). This trend will continue in the future, as UAVs are poised to replace the human-in-the-loop during dangerous missions. Civilian applications of UAVs are also envisioned such as crop dusting, geological surveying, search and rescue operations, etc. In this thesis we propose a new online multiresolution path planning algorithm for a small UAV with limited on-board computational resources. The proposed approach assumes that the UAV has detailed information of the environment and the obstacles only in its vicinity. Information about far-away obstacles is also available, albeit less accurately. The proposed algorithm uses the fast lifting wavelet transform (FLWT) to get a multiresolution cell decomposition of the environment, whose dimension is commensurate to the on-board computational resources. A topological graph representation of the multiresolution cell decomposition is constructed efficiently, directly from the approximation and detail wavelet coefficients. Dynamic path planning is sequentially executed for an optimal path using the A* algorithm over the resulting graph. The proposed path planning algorithm is implemented on-line on a small autopilot. Comparisons with the standard D*-lite algorithm are also presented. We also investigate the problem of generating a smooth, planar reference path from a discrete optimal path. Upon the optimal path being represented as a sequence of cells in square geometry, we derive a smooth B-spline path that is constrained inside a channel that is induced by the geometry of the cells. To this end, a constrained optimization problem is formulated by setting up geometric linear constraints as well as boundary conditions. Subsequently, we construct B-spline path templates by solving a set of distinct optimization problems. For an application to the UAV motion planning, the path templates are incorporated to replace parts of the entire path by the smooth B-spline paths. Each path segment is stitched together while preserving continuity to obtain a final smooth reference path to be used for path following control. The path following control for a small fixed-wing UAV to track the prescribed smooth reference path is also addressed. Assuming the UAV is equipped with an autopilot for low level control, we adopt a kinematic error model with respect to the moving Serret-Frenet frame attached to a path for tracking controller design. A kinematic path following control law that commands heading rate is presented. Backstepping is applied to derive the roll angle command by taking into account the approximate closed-loop roll dynamics. A parameter adaptation technique is employed to account for the inaccurate time constant of the closed-loop roll dynamics during actual implementation. Finally, we implement the proposed hierarchical path control of a small UAV on the actual hardware platform, which is based on an 1/5 scale R/C model airframe (Decathlon) and the autopilot hardware and software. Based on the hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation environment, the proposed hierarchical path control algorithm has been validated through the on-line, real-time implementation on a small micro-controller. By a seamless integration of the control algorithms for path planning, path smoothing, and path following, it has been demonstrated that the UAV equipped with a small autopilot having limited computational resources manages to accomplish the path control objective to reach the goal while avoiding obstacles with minimal human intervention.

<p>This master's thesis deals with the control design method called Non-linear Dynamic Inversion (NDI) and how it can be applied to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). In this thesis, simulations are conducted using a model for the unmanned aerial vehicle SHARC (Swedish Highly Advanced Research Configuration), which Saab AB is developing. </p><p>The idea with NDI is to cancel the non-linear dynamics and then the system can be controlled as a linear system. This design method needs much information about the system, or the output will not be as desired. Since it is impossible to know the exact mathematical model of a system, some kind of robust control theory is needed. In this thesis integral action is used. </p><p>A problem with NDI is that the mathematical model of a system is often very complex, which means that the controller also will be complex. Therefore, a controller that uses pure NDI is only discussed, and the simulations are instead based on approximations that use a cascaded NDI. Two such methods are investigated. One that uses much information from aerodata tables, and one that uses the derivatives of some measured outputs. Both methods generate satisfying results. The outputs from the second method are more oscillatory but the method is found to be more robust. If the signals are noisy, indications are that method one will be better.</p>

The main characteristic attribute of the rotorcraft is the use of rotary wings to produce the thrust force necessary for motion. Therefore, rotorcraft have an advantage relative to fixed wing aircraft because they do not require any relative velocity to produce aerodynamic forces. Rotorcraft have been used in a wide range of missions of civilian and military applications. Particular interest has been concentrated in applications related to search and rescue in environments that impose restrictions to human presence and interference. The main representative of the rotorcraft family is the helicopter. Small scale helicopters retain all the flight characteristics and physical principles of their full scale counterpart. In addition, they are naturally more agile and dexterous compared to full scale helicopters. Their flight capabilities, reduced size and cost have monopolized the attention of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles research community for the development of low cost and efficient autonomous flight platforms. Helicopters are highly nonlinear systems with significant dynamic coupling. In general, they are considered to be much more unstable than fixed wing aircraft and constant control must be sustained at all times. The goal of this dissertation is to investigate the challenging design problem of autonomous flight controllers for small scale helicopters. A typical flight control system is composed of a mathematical algorithm that produces the appropriate command signals required to perform autonomous flight. Modern control techniques are model based, since the controller architecture depends on the dynamic description of the system to be controlled. This principle applies to the helicopter as well, therefore, the flight control problem is tightly connected with the helicopter modeling. The helicopter dynamics can be represented by both linear and nonlinear models of ordinary differential equations. Theoretically, the validity of the linear models is restricted in a certain region around a specific operating point. Contrary, nonlinear models provide a global description of the helicopter dynamics. This work proposes several detailed control designs based on both dynamic representations of small scale helicopters. The controller objective is for the helicopter to autonomously track predefined position (or velocity) and heading reference trajectories. The controllers performance is evaluated using X-Plane, a realistic and commercially available flight simulator.

Η παρούσα διπλωματική έχει ως αντικείμενο την μελέτη των συστημάτων προώθησης και την εξέταση των δυνατοτήτων χρησιμοποίησης νέων μορφών προωθητηρίων. Συγκεκριμένα θεωρώντας ότι μέχρι σήμερα το κύριο σύστημα προώθησης UAV είναι οι DC κινητήρες σε συνδυασμό με έλικες μελετάται η δυνατότητα χρήσης Jet κινητήρων για την παραγωγή της απαιτούμενης ώσης που χρειάζεται ένα UAV κατά την αιώρηση. Οι στροβιλοκινητήρες έχουν την δυνατότητα παραγωγής σταθερής ώσης και χρησιμοποιούνται σχεδόν αποκλειστικά στα μεγάλης κλίμακας ιπτάμενα οχήματα. Υπάρχουν διάφοροι τύποι στροβιλοκινητήρων στην αγορά, οι οποίοι όμως βασίζονται στις ίδιες αρχές λειτουργίας. Κατά την εργασία μελετήθηκε ο μοντελιστικός Jet κινητήρας JetCat P20. Έγινε προσπάθεια μοντελοποίησης του εν λόγω κινητήρα λαμβάνοντας υπόψη όλα τα χαρακτηριστικά του. Το άγνωστο έως τώρα σύστημα μοντελοποιήθηκε και έγινε μελέτη της δυναμικής του. Οι Jet κινητήρες λόγω της φυσικών νόμων που τους διέπουν παρουσιάζουν σχετικά αργές αποκρίσεις. Οι σταθερές χρόνου αυτών των κινητήρων καθιστούν την δυνατότητα χρήσης τους σε UAV εφαρμογές αρκετά δύσκολη. Με την χρήση του JetCat P20 σε μια πραγματική εφαρμογή ελέγχου της γωνιάς ενός οδηγούμενου εκκρεμούς αναζητήθηκαν τα όρια και οι δυνατότητες ελέγχου αυτού του προωθητικού συστήματος. Οι Jet κινητήρες τελικά, όπως ο JetCat P20 έχουν αρκετά καλές δυνατότητες παραγωγής συγκεκριμένου επιπέδου ώσης, επομένως και ρύθμισης της γωνίας του εκκρεμούς, ωστόσο οι χρόνοι απόκρισής του είναι αρκετά μεγάλοι για τα δεδομένα UAV εφαρμογών, χωρίς να υπάρχουν πολλά περιθώρια βελτίωσης μέσω κλασσικού έλεγχου. / This thesis object is the study of propulsion systems and the examination of using new systems for propulsion. Especially, considering that until now the main propulsion system for UAV's are DC motors in combination with propellers we are examining the possibility of using Jet engine to generate the required thrust needed a UAV in hover. The turbines have the ability to produce constant thrust and are used almost exclusively in large-scale flight vehicles. There are different types of turbines on the market, but they are based on the same principles of operation. During this thesis, we are experimenting with the Jet engine JetCat P20. The Jet Engine system was modeled and we examined its dynamic.The Jet engines ,because of the physical laws governing them, have relatively slow time responses. The time constants of these motors makes it difficult to use in UAV applications. We have used the JetCat P20 in a real application ,where we tried to control the angle of a driven pendulum.The Jet engines finally, like JetCat P20 have pretty good production capabilities thrust level, and thus adjusting the angle of the pendulum, but their response time is large enough for the UAV applications, without much scope for improvement through classical control.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been used increasingly over the past few years. Special Forces of various countries utilise these systems successfully in war zones such as Afghanistan. The biggest advantage is rapid information gathering without endangering human lives. The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) also identified the need for local short range aerial reconnaissance and information gathering. A detailed literature survey identified various international players involved in the development of small hand-launch UAV systems. Unfortunately, these overseas systems are too expensive for the SANDF. A new system had to be developed locally to comply with the unique requirements, and budget, of the SANDF. The survey of existing systems provided valuable input to the detailed user requirement statement (URS) for the new South African development. The next step was to build a prototype using off-the-shelf components. Although this aircraft flew and produced good video images, it turned out to be unreliable. The prototype UAV was then replaced with a standard type model aircraft, purchased from Micropilot. Some modifications were needed to ensure better compliance with the URS. Laboratory and field tests proved that the aircraft can be applied for aerial images, within range of 10 km from the ground control station (GCS). The major limitation is that it can only fly for 40 minutes. Furthermore, the airframe is not robust, needing repairs after only 15 flights. Although the system has shortcomings, it has already been used successfully. It is expected that improved battery technologies and sturdier light-weight materials will further help to improve the system beyond user specifications. / Thesis (MIng (Electrical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been used increasingly over the past few years. Special Forces of various countries utilise these systems successfully in war zones such as Afghanistan. The biggest advantage is rapid information gathering without endangering human lives. The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) also identified the need for local short range aerial reconnaissance and information gathering. A detailed literature survey identified various international players involved in the development of small hand-launch UAV systems. Unfortunately, these overseas systems are too expensive for the SANDF. A new system had to be developed locally to comply with the unique requirements, and budget, of the SANDF. The survey of existing systems provided valuable input to the detailed user requirement statement (URS) for the new South African development. The next step was to build a prototype using off-the-shelf components. Although this aircraft flew and produced good video images, it turned out to be unreliable. The prototype UAV was then replaced with a standard type model aircraft, purchased from Micropilot. Some modifications were needed to ensure better compliance with the URS. Laboratory and field tests proved that the aircraft can be applied for aerial images, within range of 10 km from the ground control station (GCS). The major limitation is that it can only fly for 40 minutes. Furthermore, the airframe is not robust, needing repairs after only 15 flights. Although the system has shortcomings, it has already been used successfully. It is expected that improved battery technologies and sturdier light-weight materials will further help to improve the system beyond user specifications. / Thesis (MIng (Electrical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The development of a control allocation system for use as part of a fault-tolerant control (FTC) system in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is presented. This system plays a vital role in minimising the possibility that a fault will necessitate the reconfiguration of the control, guidance or navigation systems of the aircraft by minimising the difference between the desired and achievable aircraft performance parameters. This is achieved by optimising the allocation of control effort commanded by the virtual actuators to the physical actuators present on the aircraft. A simple general six degree of freedom aircraft model is presented that contains all of the relevant terms needed to find the trim biases of the aircraft actuators and evaluate the performance of the virtual actuators. This model was used to develop a control allocation formulation that optimises the performance of the virtual actuators of the aircraft while minimising adverse effects and avoiding actuator saturation. The resulting problem formulation was formulated as a multi-objective optimisation problem which was solved using the sequential quadratic programming method. The control allocation system was practically implemented and tested. A number of failure categories of varying severity were defined and two aircraft with different levels of actuator redundancy were used to test the system. The control allocation algorithm was evaluated for each failure category, aircraft test case and for a number of differing control allocation system configurations. A number of enhancements were then made to the control allocation system which included adding frequency-based allocation and adapting the algorithm for an unconventional ducted-fan UAV. The control allocation system is shown to be applicable to a number of different conventional aircraft configurations with no alterations as well as being applicable to unconventional aircraft with minor alterations. The control allocation system is shown to be capable of handling both single and multiple actuator failures and the importance of actuator redundancy is highlighted as a factor that influences the effectiveness of control allocation. The control allocation system can be effectively used as part of a FTC system or as a tool that can be used to investigate control allocation and aircraft redundancy. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die ontwikkeling van ’n beheertoekenning sisteem vir gebruik as deel van ’n fout verdraagsame beheersisteem in onbemande lugvaartuie word voorgelê. Hierdie sisteem speel ’n essensiële rol in die vermindering van die moontlikheid dat ’n fout die herkonfigurasie van die beheer, bestuur of navigasiesisteme van die vaartuig tot gevolg sal hê, deur die verskil te verminder tussen die verlangde en bereikbare werkverrigtingsraamwerk van die vaartuig. Dit word bereik deur die optimisering van die toekenning van beheerpoging aangevoer deur die virtuele aktueerders na die fisiese aktueerders teenwoordig op die vaartuig. ’n Eenvoudige algemene ses grade van vryheid lugvaartuig model word voorgestel wat al die relevante terme bevat wat benodig word om die onewewigtigheid verstelling van die vaartuig se aktueerders te vind en die werksverrigting van die virtuele aktueerders te evalueer. Hierdie model is gebruik om ’n beheer toekenning formulering te ontwikkel wat die werkverrigting van die virtuele aktueerders van die vaartuig optimiseer terwyl nadelige gevolge verminder word asook aktueerder versadiging vermy word. Die gevolglike probleem formulering is omskryf as ’n multi-doel optimiserings probleem wat opgelos is deur gebruik van die sekwensiële kwadratiese programmerings metode. Die beheertoekenning sisteem is prakties geïmplementeer en getoets. ’n Aantal fout kategorieë van verskillende grade van erns is gedefinieer en twee vaartuie met verskillende vlakke van aktueerder oortolligheid is gebruik om die sisteem te toets. Die beheer toekenning algoritme is geëvalueer vir elke fout kategorie, vaartuig toetsgeval, asook vir ’n aantal verskillende beheertoekenning sisteem konfigurasies. ’n Aantal verbeterings is aangebring aan die beheertoekenning sisteem, naamlik die toevoeging van frekwensie gebaseerde toekenning en wysiging van die algoritme vir ’n onkonvensionele onbemande geleide waaier lugvaartuig. Die beheertoekenning sisteem is van toepassing op ’n aantal verskillende konvensionele vaartuig konfigurasies met geen verstellings asook van toepassing op onkonvensionele vaartuie met geringe verstellings. Die beheertoekenning sisteem kan beide enkel- en veelvoudige aktueerder tekortkominge hanteer en die belangrikheid van aktueerder oortolligheid is beklemtoon as ’n faktor wat die effektiwiteit van beheertoekenning beïnvloed. Die beheertoekenning sisteem kan effektief geïmplementeer word as deel van ’n fout verdraagsame beheersisteem of as ’n werktuig om beheertoekenning en vaartuig oortolligheid te ondersoek.

Thesis (MScEng)-- Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis presents the analysis, design, simulation and practical implementation of a control system to achieve an accurate autonomous landing of a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle in the presence of wind gust atmospheric disturbances. Controllers which incorporate the concept of direct-lift control were designed based on a study of the longitudinal dynamics of the UAV constructed as a testbed. Direct-lift control offers the prospect of an improvement in the precision with which aircraft height and vertical velocity can be controlled by utilising actuators which generate lift directly, instead of the conventional method whereby the moment produced by an actuator results in lift being indirectly generated. Two normal specific acceleration controllers were designed. The first being a conventional moment-based controller, and the second a direct-lift-augmented controller. The moment-based controller makes use of the aircraft’s elevator while the direct-lift augmented controller in addition makes use of the flaps of the aircraft which serve as the direct-lift actuator. Controllers were also designed to regulate the airspeed, altitude, climb rate, and roll angle of the aircraft as well as damp the Dutch roll mode. A guidance controller was implemented to allow for the following of waypoints. A landing procedure and methodology was developed which includes the circuit and landing approach paths and the concept of a glide path offset to calibrate the touchdown point of a landing. All controllers and the landing procedure were tested in a hardware-in-the-loop simulation environment as well as practically in a series of flight tests. Five fully autonomous landings were performed, three of these using the conventional NSA controller, and the final two the direct-lift-augmented NSA controller. The results obtained during the landing flight tests show that the project goal of a landing within five meters along the runway and three meters across the runway was achieved in both normal wind conditions as well as in conditions where wind gusts prevailed. The flight tests also showed that the direct-lift-augmented NSA controller appears to achieve a more accurate landing than the conventional NSA controller, especially in the presence of greater wind disturbances. The direct-lift augmented NSA controller also exhibited less pitch angle rotation during landing. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis verteenwoordig die analise, ontwerp, simulasie en praktiese implementering van ’n beheerstelsel wat ten doel het om ’n akkurate en outonome landing van ’n onbemande vastevlerk vliegtuig in rukwind atmosferiese toestande te bewerkstellig. Gegrond op ’n studie van die longitudinale dinamika van die vliegtuig wat as proeftuig gebruik is, is beheerders ontwerp wat die beginsel van direkte-lig insluit. Direkte-lig beheer hou die potensiaal in om die vliegtuig se hoogte en vertikale snelheid akkuraat te beheer deur gebruik te maak van aktueerders wat lig direk genereer in teenstelling met die konvensionele metode waar die moment van die aktueerder indirek lig genereer. Twee normaal-versnellings beheerders is ontwerp. Die eerste is ’n konvensionele moment-gebaseerde beheerder wat gebruik maak van die hys-aktueerder van die vliegtuig, en die tweede is ’n direkte-lig-bygestaande beheerder wat addisioneel gebruik maak van die flappe van die vliegtuig wat as die direkte-lig aktueerder dien. Vedere beheerders is ontwerp wat die lugspoed, hoogte, klimkoers, en rolhoek van die vliegtuig reguleer asook die “Dutch roll” gedrag afklam. ’n Leiding-beheerder wat die volg van vliegbakens hanteer, is ingestel. Die landingsprosedure en -metodologie is ontwikkel wat die landingspad sowel as die sweef-pad bepaal en wat terselfdertyd ’n metode daarstel om die posisie van die landingspunt te kalibreer. Die beheerders en landingsprosedure is in ’n hardeware-in-die-lus omgewing gesimuleer en deur middel van ’n reeks proefvlugte getoets. Vyf ten volle outonome landings is uitgevoer waarvan drie van die konvensionele normaal-versnellings beheerder gebruik gemaak het, en die laaste twee die direkte-lig-bygestaande normaal-versnellings beheerder. Die vlugtoetsuitslae bevestig dat die navorsingsdoel om ’n landing binne vyf meter in lyn met en drie meter dwarsoor die landingstrook te bewerkstellig, behaal is. Hierdie akkuraatheid is verkry in beide goeie atmosferiese toestande sowel as toestande met rukwinde. Volgens die vlugtoetse blyk dit dat die direkte-lig-bygestaande normaalversnellings beheerder ’n meer akkurate landing kan bewerkstellig as die konvensionele normaal-versnellings beheerder, veral dan in toestande met rukwinde. Die direkte-ligbygestaande normaal-versnellings beheerder het ook ’n laer hei-hoek rotasie tydens die landing vertoon.

Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Fault detection and isolation (FDI) is an important aspect of effective fault tolerant control architectures. The Electronic System Laboratory at Stellenbosch University identified the need to study viable methods of FDI. In this research two FDI methods for actuator failures on the Meraka Modular UAV are investigated. The Meraka Modular UAV is an unmanned aircraft that was developed by the CSIR. A simple six degree of freedom non-linear mathematical model is developed that presents a platform on which the two FDI methods are formulated. The theoretical model is used in a simulation environment to extensively test and compare the performance of the proposed FDI methods in different types of flight conditions. The first method investigated is a multiple model adaptive estimator (MMAE), which incorporates a bank of Kalman filters. Each Kalman filter in the MMAE is conditioned for each expected actuator fault scenario. The limitations of using linear Kalman filters are explained and they are replaced by extended Kalman filters, whose associated advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Each filter in the bank of Kalman filters produces a residual vector and residual covariance matrix. This information is subjected to a Bayes classifier to determine the fault scenario which will have the highest likelihood of being active. The second method that is studied incorporates the parity space approach for FDI. The parity space consists of the parity relations that quantify all the analytical redundancies available between the sensors’ outputs and actuator inputs of a system. A transformation matrix is then optimised to transform these parity relations into residuals that are specially sensitive to specific actuator faults. Actuator faults cause the parity space residuals’ variance to increase. A cumulative summation procedure is used to determine when the residuals’ variance has changed sufficiently to indicate an actuator fault. A pseudoinverse actuator estimation scheme is used to extract the actuator deflections from the parity relations. The FDI performance is tested by deliberately failing specific actuators of the Meraka Modular UAV in-flight. The flight test data is then used to analyse and compare the performance of the two FDI methods investigated in the research. It is found that, for the specific Meraka Modular UAV, the FDI performs as expected with disturbance effects and actuator excitation influencing the FDI effectiveness. The research shows that the bank of Kalman filters creates less false alarms whereas the parity space FDI is more sensitive to faults. It is illustrated that FDI can be improved with active actuator excitation and process noise estimation techniques, delivering promising results. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Fout-deteksie en -isolasie (FDI) is belangrik vir ’n stelsel se beheerder om foute te kan hanteer. Die Elektroniese Stelsellabaratorium (ESL) by die Universiteit van Stellenbosch het die behoefte geïdentifiseer om te gaan kyk na moontlike FDI-stelsels wat gebruik kan word op hul onbemande vliegtuie (OV). In hierdie navorsing is daar na twee FDI-metodes gekyk wat op die Meraka Modulêre OV toegepas kan word. Die Meraka Modulêre OV is ’n vliegtuig wat deur die WNNR ontwikkel is. ’n Eenvoudige sesgrade- van-vryheid, nie-liniêre wiskundige model van die Meraka Modulêre OV is ontwikkel, en die FDI-metodes is rondom hierdie model geformuleer. Die teoretiese model is gebruik in ’n simulasie-omgewing en die werkverrigting van die twee FDI-metodes is in verskillende vlug-omstandighede getoets en vergelyk. Die eerste metode waarna gekyk is, was ’n multi-model aanpasbare afskatter (MMAA), wat ’n bank van Kalman-filters gebruik. Elke Kalman-filter in die MMAA is gekondisioneer vir elke denkbare aktueerder-fout. Die beperkinge rondom liniêre Kalman-filters is uitgelig en vergelyk met uitgebreide Kalman-filters, waarvan die voor- en nadele bespreek is. Elke filter in die MMAA produseer ’n residu-vektor en residu-kovariansiematriks. Hierdie informasie is na ’n Bayes-klassifiseerder gestuur om te bepaal watter fout-senario die grootste waarskynlikheid het om aktief te wees. Die tweede metode waarna gekyk is, het die pariteitsruimte vir FDI gebruik. Die pariteitsruimte is uit al die pariteitsverwantskappe opgebou wat die verhoudings tussen al die insette en uitsette van ’n sisteem kwantifiseer. ’n Transformasie-matriks is geoptimaliseer om hierdie pariteitsverwantskappe te transformeer na residue wat elkeen sensitief is tot ’n spesikiefe aktueerderfout. ’n Spesifieke aktueerderfout veroorsaak dat ’n spesifieke residu se variansie verhoog. ’n Kummulatiewe sommeringsproses is dan gebruik om te bepaal of die variansie genoegsaam toegeneem het. Sodoende kon daar bepaal word of ’n fout ontstaan het. ’n Pseudo-inversaktueerder-afskattingstegniek is gebruik om die afgeskatte aktueerderdefleksie uit die pariteitsverwantskappe te onttrek. Die FDI-werkverrigtinge van die twee metodes is getoets deur sekere aktueerders met opset te laat faal gedurende vlugtoetse. Die vlugtoetsdata is gebruik om die werkverrigting van die FDI-metodes te analiseer en met mekaar te vergelyk. Met die spesifieke Meraka Modulêre OV is, soos te wagte, bevind dat versteurings en aktueerderopwekking ’n groot invloed op die FDI’s se werkverrigtinge toon.

Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis the strategy for performing System Identification on an aircraft is presented. The ultimate aim of this document is to outline the steps required for successful aircraft parameter estimation within a Fault Tolerant Control Framework. A brief derivation of the classical 6 degree-of-freedom aircraft model is firstly presented. The derivation gives insight into the aircraft dynamics that are to be used to estimate the aircraft parameters, and provides a basis for the methods provided in this thesis. Different techniques of System Identification were evaluated, resulting in the choice of the Regression method to be used. This method, based on the Least-Squares method, is chosen because of its simplicity of use and because it does not require as much computational time as the other methods presented. Regression methods, including a recursive algorithm, are then applied to aircraft parameter estimation and practical considerations such as Identifiability and corrupted measurements are highlighted. The determination of unknown measurements required for System Identification of aircraft parameters is then discussed. Methods for both estimating and measuring the Angle-of-Attack (AoA) and angular accelerations are presented. The design and calibration of an AoA probe for AoA measurements, as well as a novel method that uses distributed sensors to determine the angular accelerations is also presented. The techniques presented in this thesis are then tested on a non-linear aircraft model. Through simulation it was shown that for the given sensor setup, the methods do not provide sufficiently accurate parameter estimates. When using the Regression method, obtaining measurements of the angle-of-attack solely through estimation causes problems in the estimation of the aerodynamic lift coefficients. Flight tests were performed and the data was analyzed. Similar issues as experienced with estimation done on the non-linear aircraft simulation, was found. Recommendations with regards to how to conduct future flight tests for system identification is proposed and possible sources of errors are highlighted. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis word die strategie vir die uitvoering van Stelsel Identifikasie op 'n vliegtuig aangebied. Die uiteindelike doel van hierdie document is om die stappe wat nodig is vir 'n suksesvolle vliegtuig parameter beraming, binne 'n Fout Tolerante Beheer Raamwerk, uit eente sit. 'n Kort afleiding van die klassieke 6 graad-van-vryheid vliegtuig model word eerstens aangebied. Die afleiding gee insig in die vliegtuig dinamika wat gebruik moet word om die vliegtuig parameters te beraam, en bied 'n basis vir die metodes wat in hierdie tesis verskyn. Verskillende tegnieke van Stelsel Identifikasie is geëvalueer, wat lei tot gebruik van die regressie-metode. Hierdie metode is gekies as gevolg van sy eenvoudigheid en omdat dit nie soveel berekening tyd as die ander metodes vereis nie. Regressie metodes, insluitend 'n rekursiewe algoritme, word dan toegepas op vliegtuig parameter beraming en praktiese orwegings soos identifiseerbaarheid en korrupte metings word uitgelig. Die bepaling van onbekende afmetings wat benodig is, word vir Stelsel Identifisering van die vliegtuig parameters bespreek. Metodes om die invalshoek en hoekige versnellings te meet en beraam, word aangebied. Die ontwerp en kalibrasie van 'n invalshoek sensor vir invalshoek metings, sowel as 'n nuwe metode wat gebruik maak van verspreide sensore om die hoekversnellings te bepaal, word ook aangebied. Die tegnieke wat in hierdie tesis aangebied is, word dan op 'n nie-lineêre vliegtuig model getoets. Deur simulasie is dit getoon dat die metodes vir die gegewe sensor opstelling nie voldoende akkurate parameters beraam nie. Dit is ook bewys dat met die gebruik van die Regressie metode, die vekryging van metings van die invalshoek slegs deur skatting, probleme in die beraming van die aerodinamiese lug koëffisiente veroorsaak. Die tegnieke wat in hierdie tesis verskyn, word dan op werklike vlug data toegepas.Vlugtoetse is uitgevoer en die data is ontleed. Aanbeveling met betrekking tot hoe om toekomstige vlug toetse vir Stelsel Identifikasiete word voorgestel, en moontlike bronne van foute word uitgelig.