Dynamic distributed morphing control of an aeroelastic wing for a small drone

This paper presents a flight control approach for small unmanned aerial vehicles. The active morphing of an elastic wing was used to generate aerodynamic control forces to control both the aeroelastic deformation and the flight dynamic motion. A piezoelectric composite was chosen as the smart material that can apply direct control force and generate strain distribution on the wing. The piezoelectric actuators were designed according to the structural dynamic properties of the membrane wing. By integrating the piezoelectric forces into the finite element model, control mode shapes can be defined for each kind of morphing control input. Both the natural and the control mode shapes were used for the order reduction. Thus, the order-reduced model can demonstrate both the active morphing and the passive elastic deformation of the wing. The open-loop control response of the aeroservoelastic model shows that the passive aeroelastic deformation can be used to augment the active morphing. The flight maneuvering control response shows that the rolling moment generated by the morphing wing is enough for the lateral flight control of the small drone. The active morphing can be partly diminished by the maneuvering motion.