Date of Award

Fall 12-2017

Access Type

Thesis - Open Access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering

Department

Aerospace Engineering

Committee Chair

Hever Moncayo

First Committee Member

Claudia Moreno

Second Committee Member

Yan Tang

Abstract

This thesis presents the development of a research test bed and the use of a set of metrics for evaluating handling qualities with pilot in the loop configuration. The main objective of this study is to provide software and hardware tools to support performance evaluation of control systems designed to compensate for Pilot Induced Oscillations (PIOs). A remotely-piloted vehicle presented in this thesis consists of an RC aircraft modified to be flown from a ground station cockpit. The unmanned aerial system has a high-speed on-board processing system capable of simulating different conditions during flight such as injecting actuator failures and adding delays. In this study, the analysis of pilot handling qualities based on a set of evaluation metrics, is also included. The metrics are based on time-domain Neal-Smith criterion and are used to provide numerical data which categorizes the control system in one of the levels on the Cooper-Harper Rating scale. Two different control configurations were implemented and analyzed in this study: stick-to-servo and non-linear dynamic inversion control laws. Piloted-simulation results are presented on the Neal-Smith flying qualities plane at different flight conditions.

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