Simulation Modeling and Dynamics of Rotorcraft-Based UAS

The University of Maryland Rotorcraft Flight Dynamics Simulation HeliUM is extended to model electric propulsion systems for rotorcraft based multirotor UAS. Each rotor can be controlled by a user-defined mix of RPM and swashplate controls. HeliUM computes the trim state, the time marching response to arbitrary pilot inputs, and extracts high-order state-space linearized models suitable for flight dynamics and control analyses. The solutions do not require that rotor speeds be constant and identical across all rotors, and a common 1/rev frequency is not required. The model is validated using test data for the TRV-80 UAS configuration, which is a smaller version with the same rotor arrangement and overall geometry of the TRV-150C Tactical Resupply Unmanned Aircraft System (TRUAS). The engineering simulation HeliUM can model rotorcraft-based UAS of any size, Groups 1 to 5.