A new navigation system for small size Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) is presented, which is based on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) based Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), Vision Based Navigation (VBN) and other low-cost avionics sensors. The objective of this research is to design a compact, lightweight and relatively inexpensive Nav...

Formal robustness analysis of aircraft control upset prevention and recovery systems could play an important role in their validation and ultimate certification. Such systems (developed for failure detection, identification, and reconfiguration, as well as upset recovery) need to be evaluated over broad regions of the flight envelope and under extreme flight conditions, and should include vario...

In recent years, the development of lighter and more efficient transport aircraft has led to an increased focus on gust load alleviation. A strategy is based use folding wingtip devices that increase aspect ratio therefore improve performance. Moreover, numerical studies have suggested such a solution may incorporate spring in order provide additional alleviation ability flight. It been shown m...

This paper illustrates a non-linear model for the dynamic simulation of small-scale helicopter and the activities carried out for the identification of the unknown parameters. Recently, the University of Pisa has undertaken activities aiming to the development of smallscale unmanned systems starting from small commercial RC model helicopters. In this context, the simulation plays a crucial role...

Abstract. This work presents the development of a flight control law design structure, based on the H∞ and μ synthesis theory. The design criteria includes usual robustness and performance requirements related to parameters uncertainty in the vicinity of the design point. In addition, the conventional mixed sensitivity design scheme is changed to comply with specific requirements of a flight co...

The tymbal muscle fiber in the cicada closely resembles the indirect flight muscle fiber in its structural detail. We agree with other authors that the tymbal muscle is a modified indirect flight muscle. The peripheral nerve branches to the tymbal and flight muscle fibers are similar to those in the wasp leg. The axon is loosely mantled by irregular turns of the mesaxon, enclosing cytoplasm. Th...

Adaptive morphing trailing edge wings have the potential to reduce the fuel burn of transport aircraft. In this paper, we quantify the aerodynamic performance benefits of a morphing trailing using aerodynamic design optimization. The aerodynamic model solves the Reynolds-averaged Navier– Stokes equations with a Spalart–Allmaras turbulence model. A gradient-based optimization algorithm is used i...

A linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) framework for developing robust, adaptive nonlinear flight control systems is presented. The controller structure is that of a feedforward sigmoidal neural network that is both adaptive and reconfigurable, since the control law it approximates can be modified by updating its parameters during operation. The neural network controller is designed via LMIs to me...

This paper presents a holistic model order reduction (MOR) methodology and framework that integrates key technological elements of sequential model reduction, consistent model representation, and model interpolation for constructing high-quality linear parameter-varying (LPV) aeroservoelastic (ASE) reduced order models (ROMs) of flexible aircraft. The sequential MOR encapsulates a suite of redu...

A method is presented for the stress analysis of flight vehicles under different flight conditions including gust and control surface deflection (or maneuver) using the governing equations of rigid-body motions and elastic deformations. The Lagrangian approach is used to derive the governing equations of motions. For this purpose, the basic equations of motions are derived in terms of potential...