Print Email Facebook Twitter Design, control, and visual navigation of the DelftaCopter VTOL tail-sitter UAV Title Design, control, and visual navigation of the DelftaCopter VTOL tail-sitter UAV Author de Wagter, C. (TU Delft Control & Simulation) Ruisink, Rick (TU Delft Control & Simulation) Smeur, E.J.J. (TU Delft Control & Simulation) van Hecke, K.G. (TU Delft Control & Simulation) van Tienen, F. (TU Delft Control & Simulation) van der Horst, E. (TU Delft Control & Simulation) Remes, B.D.W. (TU Delft Control & Simulation) Date 2018 Abstract To participate in the Outback Medical Express UAV Challenge 2016, a vehicle was designed and tested that can autonomously hover precisely, takeoff and land vertically, fly fast forward efficiently, and use computer vision to locate a person and a suitable landing location. The vehicle is a novel hybrid tail‐sitter combining a delta‐shaped biplane fixed‐wing and a conventional helicopter rotor. The rotor and wing are mounted perpendicularly to each other,and the entire vehicle pitches down to transition from hover to fast forward flight where the rotor serves as propulsion. To deliver sufficient thrust in hover while still being efficient in fast forward flight, a custom rotor system was designed. The theoretical design was validated with energy measurements, wind tunnel tests, and application in real‐world missions. A rotor‐head and corresponding control algorithm were developed to allow transitioning flight with the nonconventional rotor dynamics that are caused by the fuselage rotor interaction. Dedicated electronics were designed that meet vehicle needs and comply with regulations to allow safe flight beyond visual line of sight. Vision‐based search and guidance algorithms running on a stereo‐vision fish‐eye camera were developed and tested to locate a person in cluttered terrain never seen before. Flight tests and a competition participation illustrate the applicability of the DelftaCopter concept. Subject aerial roboticscontrolemergency responseperceptionsensors To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4868ff50-468d-4397-8ee8-8e8029e99d3f DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/rob.21789 ISSN 1556-4967 Source Journal of Field Robotics, 35 (6), 937-960 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2018 C. de Wagter, Rick Ruisink, E.J.J. Smeur, K.G. van Hecke, F. van Tienen, E. van der Horst, B.D.W. Remes Files PDF Wagter_et_al_2018_Journal ... botics.pdf 3.85 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:4868ff50-468d-4397-8ee8-8e8029e99d3f/datastream/OBJ/view