Energy-Based Controller Decoupling of Powered Parafoil Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Powered Parafoil Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (PPUAV), which is suitable for large-area and long-time surveillance and airdrop missions, is a type of innovative UAV. It consists of parafoil canopy, payload and suspension lines, and has the advantages of simple structure, low cost and high load capacity. However, due to the apparent mass and flexible connection, it is hard to build an accurate model for controller design for PPUAV. Normal PID controller is unsuitable for PPUAV because of the inputs' coupling effects on outputs. This paper presents an applicable method of modeling to capture the main characteristics of PPUAV, and the proposed model is validated by actual flight test. To deal with the coupling effect, a novel control method based on energy is proposed. The method has clear adjustment procedures and is more practical and effective than normal PID controller. The simulation results show its effectiveness on PPUAV.