Innovative Piloting Technique for a Semi-Autonomous UAV Lighter-Than-Air Platform Simulator

Abstract

UAS design has in these years reached a point in which trends and objectives are well beyond the actual test capabilities. The tendency of the past to build and test has clearly been overridden by new design concepts for many reasons, one of these being the scarce or null possibility of testing safety-critical systems such as UAV systems. This is the context in which the Elettra-Twin-Flyer (ETF) Simulator is constantly upgraded and rearranged to incorporate new features and more advanced capabilities. In this paper it is shown how the piloting modes have been differentiated, to improve the airship autonomy and allow path following operations. Innovative piloting tools have been introduced and a new Human-Machine-Interface has been proposed along.

Simulation and Test of Discrete Mobile Surfaces for a RC-Aircraft

“…While they originally fitted mostly military applications, now their use is rapidly expanding to commercial, scientific, agricultural, recreational and other civil applications [4][5][6][7][8]. For this reason, in recent years there has been an increasing interest for (i) lighter-than-air UAVs with significantly higher endurance that can be used for persistent area surveillance [9]; (ii) long-endurance UAVs that can fly for several days [10][11][12] and (iii) small UAVs that are versatile, portable and easy to maintain [13,14].…”