Development of a Multi-Rotor eVTOL Using RPM, Collective, and Cyclic Control

The Eagle Flight Research Center (EFRC) at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) is investigating the risks and failure modes of distributed electric propulsion (DEP) employed in novel Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) aircraft designs. To certify these aircraft for private and commercial operations, a greater understanding of how the vehicle is controlled in both nominal and off nominal or degraded modes is required. The purpose of the research performed at the EFRC is to assess how the various methods of DEP thrust control scale up to the sizes required for the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) mission, in addition to how well the methods perform in both normal and degraded modes of operation. The EFRC team has designed and built a test stand to characterize the capabilities of a single DEP unit as well as a full-scale quadcopter AAM vehicle with RPM, collecting and cyclic control to be used to explore operation in degraded modes. A MATLAB/Simulink model has also been created and validated to simulate the single DEP unit performance.