Abstract
In recent years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has seen great advances and applications into various sectors from reconnaissance to environmental monitoring. However, ensuring stability and accurate control in the design of UAVs present a challenge due to the fact that the fundamental aspects of aerodynamic modeling and stability assessment call for greater refinement. Existing methods may not capture all the complex aerodynamic interactions of the control surfaces of the UAV; therefore, it leads to potential instability and possible control problems might arise. This study will accordingly solve those challenges by emphasizing on the aerodynamic modeling and stability analysis of a rigid UAV using the Vortex Lattice Method (VLM).In this study, data were obtained through simulations conducted using Athena Vortex Lattice (AVL) software to model aerodynamic characteristics more accurately. Stability derivatives were also calculated for both longitudinal and lateral dynamics based on AVL outputs. These data include critical aerodynamic coefficients such as lift, drag and pitching moment coefficients, as well as stability derivatives associated with control surfaces such as ailerons, elevators and rudders.
The findings validate AVL as an effective implementation for obtaining the aerodynamic coefficients and stability derivatives for accurate UAV modeling. By applying these values, we implemented them in linearized state-space models for the longitudinal and lateral dynamics, we successfully were able to obtain the eigenvalues indicating stability behavior, and time response. This approach gave a complete and clear picture of the UAVs stability, indicating that specific control surface deflections have a profound influence on dynamic stability. This study concludes with a confirmation that VLM is viable option for modeling UAVs to keep the computational resourceful, providing a valuable insight for practical improvements on stability and control designs of UAVs.