Frequency model of an essentially nonlinear steering drive with a digital microcontroller

• Main Author: S. V. Gryzin
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Moscow State Technical University of Civil Aviation 2020-07-01
• Series: Naučnyj Vestnik MGTU GA
• Subjects: unmanned aerial vehicle (uav); stabilization system; electric drive; frequency responses; digital controller; nonminimum phase systems; frequency model; nonlinear model
• Online Access: https://avia.mstuca.ru/jour/article/view/1703

When designing a stabilization system for highly maneuverable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), one of the relevant tasks is to study the operation of the steering drive in the frequency band corresponding to the flexural vibrations of the UAV body. To ensure the stability of the UAV stabilization system, quite conflicting requirements may be imposed on the dynamic characteristics of the drive. In particular, the requirement for a sharp suppression of the amplitude-frequency characteristic at the frequency of UAV bending vibrations with minimal phase distortions in the control band of the longitudinal and lateral channels of the stabilization system can significantly complicate the task of researching the stability of the UAV motion control system. The article discusses an electric drive prototype with a digital microcontroller, designed for a highly maneuverable UAV. Adaptive algorithms of the digital controller make it possible to provide the necessary phase delays in the control frequency band and at the same time almost completely suppress the harmonic components of the control signals at the frequencies of the bending vibrations of the UAV body. The algorithms are essentially nonlinear in nature and are based on a change in the gain of the direct circuit of the drive depending on the frequency of the input signal, which greatly complicates the calculation of the transfer function of the steering drive for use in the frequency model of the stabilization system. Generally, the steering drive is described by a linear minimum-phase system, presented as a transfer function of one of the typical blocks of the first or second order, but for the specified steering drive with given dynamic characteristics, this approach is untenable. As a result of the study, a method for obtaining a frequency model of the steering drive is proposed, which is implemented as a non-minimum phase system, the main property of which is the independence of the amplitude-frequency and phase-frequency characteristics. In the process of research, the results obtained on the proposed model are compared with the results of experiments on a drive prototype and its complete non-linear time model. The main advantage of the proposed frequency model is a fairly simple description of the steering drive in the frequency domain, convenient for use as part of the frequency model of the stabilization system in the study of problems of ensuring the stability of UAV flight.