Model Predictive Control design for a convertible Quad Tilt-Wing UAV

This paper deals with the design of a Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach for the altitude and attitude stabilization and tracking of a Quad Tilt Wing (QTW) type of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). This Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft can take-off and landing vertically such as helicopters and is convertible to the fixed-wing configuration for horizontal flight using a tilting mechanism for its rotors/wings. A nonlinear dynamical model, relating to the vertical flight mode of this QTW, is firstly developed using the Newton-Euler formalism, in describing the aerodynamic forces and moments acting on the aircraft. This established model, linearized around an equilibrium operating point, is then used to design a MPC approach for the stabilization and tracking of the QTW attitude and altitude. In order to show the performance superiority of the proposed MPC technique, a comparison with the known Linear Quadratic (LQ) strategy is carried out. All simulation results, obtained for both MPC and LQ approaches, are presented and discussed.