Flight testing of control allocation for elevator actuator fault in small UAV

Final validation of new control technique for any air vehicle must be conducted through flight testing. It is the most critical phase of the research work where it validates and provides real world feedback on the theoretical and simulation design. On the other hand, an unmanned aircraft as presented in this work is highly complex systems; a single component failure can lead to potentially dangerous consequences. The objective of this paper is to present the flight test result on the investigation on using alternate control surface for a control allocation of pitch control transition from elevator to stabilator of a small UAV. There were fourty flight tests have been performed and from the analysis, the proposed method is feasible to be used without affecting flight endurance and characteristics during flight control transition. The alternate control surface accommodation technique proves to promise higher reliability in case of faulty on-board actuator.