This paper describes the design method of a nonlinear flight controller for a fixed-wing UAV with a thrust vectoring system (TVS) using the backstepping method. The flight dynamics of the UAV exhibits strong nonlinear coupling behavior between its translational and rotational motion. The backstepping algorithm has been successfully applied to controller design for such a nonlinear system. However, the main idea of the method is to use some of the state variables as virtual control inputs that need ungeneratable forces by the UAV. To overcome this problem, we use the TVS that can generate thrust in an arbitrary direction. Numerical simulation is performed to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control method for a fixed-wing UAV with the TVS.
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