Robust Stabilized Control for Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) Fixed-Wing Aircraft

Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, which is used extensively in both military and civilian fields, has the advantages of good maneuverability, high cruising speed, and low requirements for the takeoff and landing modes. Robust and stable control is crucial to ensuring its safety because the dynamics model of an eVTOL aircraft will change significantly between fixed-wing and vertical takeoff and landing mode. In this paper, we first study the structural characteristics of the eVTOL aircraft and establish its dynamic model by considering typical flight modes and mechanical parameters. Then we design a closed-loop controller based on cascade PID technique. Finally, the effectiveness of the control algorithms is verified based on the semi-physical flight simulation platform, which can lower the development cost of control algorithms significantly. The simulation results demonstrate that the cascade PID control scheme accelerates the implementation of the robust controller, and significantly enhance the stabilization control performance of the aircraft in vertical takeoff and landing mode as well as autonomous navigation mode.