Flight modeling and experimental autonomous hover control of a fixed wing mini-UAV at high angle of attack

The usefulness of mini unmanned aerial vehicles has been proven by several applications in the domain of reconnaissance, surveillance and search-and-rescue applications in dangerous areas. This paper describes the development of a fixed-wing mini-UAV platform, the sensing and guidance and control systems for use in laboratory, indoor and outdoor flight testing. The systems developed are demonstrated with autonomous hover experiments on the UAV. Furthermore, an efficient way of modeling the dynamics of the vehicle is presented and supported with experimental data obtained during autonomous hover and high angle of attack flight experiments.