HQ ASPECTS FOR UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are finding increasing applications in military and other civilian operations, and the study of their dynamics is gaining importance in recent times. For remotely piloted vehicles several aspects are important: remote interaction of the test pilot with the vehicle, ground station interaction/software, flight displays, and data link time delays. UAVs are used for conducting specialized and complex missions. For the remote test pilot of the UAV the ‘‘seat-of-the pants’’ cues are not available. Data link/transmission time delays can have adverse effects
Condition |
v180 |
vBWp |
vBWg |
vBW |
TP |
Task A |
Task B |
Task D |
|
Pitch axis |
Hover |
6.298 |
2.8 |
4.12 |
2.8 |
0.078 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Roll axis |
Hover |
12.27 |
8.09 |
4.87 |
4.87 |
0.042 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Yaw axis |
Hover |
2.235 |
0.246 |
1.39 |
0.246 |
0.074 |
3 |
— |
— |
Pitch axis |
Forward flight |
5.862 |
2.56 |
3.49 |
2.56 |
0.081 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Roll axis |
Forward flight |
12.06 |
5.47 |
6.56 |
5.47 |
0.048 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Yaw axis |
Forward flight |
6.39 |
3.27 |
5.09 |
3.27 |
0.015 |
2 |
— |
— |
TABLE 10.11 Bandwidth Criteria Evaluation for BO 105 Helicopter |
HQ Levels |
Source: Shaik, I., Wolfgang, V. G., and Hamers, M. HAT—A handling qualities analysis toolbox. NAL Project document FC 0210, November 2002 (also as IB 111-2002/27, DLR). Note: Task A—target acquisition and tracking; Task B—all mission task elements, UCE = 1, and fully attended; Task D—all mission task elements, UCE > 1 or divided attention. |
on the system’s HQ. Small UAVs exhibit higher natural frequencies than large aircraft. Therefore, even if these UAVs are rated (by test pilots) to have good HQs they would fall outside the conventionally specified HQ boundaries for short period. A dynamic scaling method can be used [31] to adjust the military standard for short – period mode. One can use the dynamic (Froude) scaling to provide common ratios between inertia-to-gravity and aerodynamic-to-gravity forces for vehicles with different geometrical dimensions (large – to small-scale vehicles). The following relation is handy, with N as the scaling factor:
Table 10.12 shows a comparison of a few parameters of Cessna-182 aircraft and StablEyes UAV. StablEyes (BYU Captsone 2004) has a span of 0.61 m, mean aerodynamic chord (MAC) of 0.15 m, cruise velocity of 15 m/s, and an average wing sweep of 8°.
TABLE 10.12 Comparison of a Few Parameters of a Light Aircraft and an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Source: Foster, T. M. and Bowman, W. J. Dynamic stability and handling qualities of small unmanned-aerial-vehicles. 43rd AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit. Reno, NV, 10-13 January, 2005. |
Despite the differences in the size and dimension of these two aircraft, there is a good similarity between the nondimensional derivatives. Cessna-182 has an HQ Level 1. However, the UAV has an HQ Level 2. As rated by the pilot the UAV has good HQ rating. When the scaling of N = 80 was used, and the HQ boundaries were adjusted, the UAV fell within the adjusted HQ Level 1 [31].