Control of a Quadrotor Equipped with a Fixed-wing by Tilting Some of Four Rotors

Abstract

—Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are being expected to be used for the vegetational observation and the information collection of disaster sites. Especially, rotorcrafts typified by helicopters are attractive, because they are able to hover and achieve vertical take-off and landing (VTOL). However, rotorcrafts have a disadvantage that it cannot have a long-distance flight, because they fly by the thrust of upward direction. Aircrafts with tilt rotors are developed in order to overcome such disadvantages. Such aircrafts can be hovering and take a VTOL and also a long-distance flight by changing the angle of the rotor. In this research, it is aimed at proposing a VTOL-type UAV with a fixed-wing and four tiltable rotors and controlling it.