1712
DESIGN:
AeroVantage ~ Control (Flight & Power) - Logic -
1x2
- Overview
Flight and Power ~ since both are to be electric.
General information; much of which to be moved to lower detail pages as this section grows.

Overview:
Hover:
To be varied by electrical actuator in nose cone or by the mechanism that tilts the PropRotors between hover and cruise. A torque-pitch coupling could be added to either of the 2 to provide for fast pitch control during hover.
Roll: Identical lateral cyclic by both PropRotors.
Yaw: Opposed lateral cyclic by both PropRotors.

Electronic Mixer Box:
Note that the following axes are applicable to the proprotor. When the proprotor has its axis of rotation vertical, i.e. as a rotor, the proprotor's axes coincide with those of the craft. The Z-axis is the rotor/motor's axis of rotation. The Y-axis axis is the one that the proprotor & motors transition about (lateral axis). The X-axis is the longitudinal axis.
NOTE that there is no autorotation.

Note:
The actuator(s) for collective can be mechanical and torque-pitch.
The actuator(s) for lateral must be by an electrical device, However it can be located in the nose cones or behind the PropRotor.

- Pitch:
- Input:
Forward and aft motions on the cyclic 'stick' produce;-
- Hover Mode:
Decrease in thrust from the front proprotor. Increase in thrust from rear proprotor. Slight opposed roll from both proprotors to eliminate yaw.
- Rearward:
Increase in thrust from the front proprotor. Decrease in thrust from rear proprotor. Slight opposed roll from both proprotors to eliminate yaw.
Transition Mode: - Identical thrust vector changes about the Y-axis of both rotors. The reading from the tilt sensors at the two rotors will input the ratio of this mix.
Cruise Mode:
Working in tandem.
Partial Transition: Partial positive or negative rotation of the rear transition mechanism, only.
Computerized Smoothing:
??

-
Roll:
- Want very strong roll control.
- Input:
Left and right motions on the 'stick' produce;-
- Hover Mode:
- Rear Proprotor:
Lateral cyclic.
- Front Rotor:
Lateral cyclic.
- -
Concern: See; AeroVantage ~ Trim, Stability & Control - Stability
Transition Mode: - an action of the two rotors that is a mix of those for hover and cruise. The reading from the transition sensor of the two rotors will input the ratio of this mix.
Cruise Mode: - differential thrust between the two rotors. The roll is produced by the difference in the induced drag between the two rotors. This could be produced by collective differential OR if there is a desire to have the collective only linked to the tilt use differential rpm. I THINK THAT COLLECTIVE MUST BE USED BY THE FLIGHT-CONTROLS.
OR by differential elevators.
Computerized Smoothing:
??

- Yaw:
- Input:
Left and right force on the foot pedals;-
- Hover Mode:
- Opposing lateral thrust vectors about the X-axis of both rotors by knuckle joint in front proprotor and rudder in aft proprotor. Due to the 3º to 4º precone angle the forgoing MAY be true ~ if not then ....
- OR Opposed action of elevators
- Transition Mode:
an action of the two rotors will be a mix of those for hover and cruise. The reading from the tilt sensors at the two rotors will input the ratio of this mix.
- Cruise Mode:
- Airplane Control Surface:
- Rudder ~ mechanical connection.
Computerized Smoothing:
??

- Thrust:
- Climb:
Collective lever or ..... on Joy stick. It is achieved by increasing the pitch of both PropRotors.
- Hover Mode:
- Increased power and collective blade pitch on both proprotors.
Transition Mode: Same as hover and cruise.
Cruise Mode: Increase thrust on both proprotors. (collective is automatic?)
Computerized Smoothing:
The encoders maintain the speed of the (constant speed) motors by pulse width modulation. The exception being the pilot's overriding On/Off switch.
Descent: Autorotation is not used. Therefore can have optimized propeller profile, with pitch (collective) change.

- Throttle Input:
Grip on collective lever or thumb switch on Joy stick
- Increases the rpm of both motors in unision.
- Transition:
- 'Beep' momentary contact toggle switch on the cyclic stick (or joy-stick). This causes the transition actuators to rotate both PropRotors while at the same time changing the pitch of the PropRotors. Increasing the pitch when rotating toward cruise.
- Computerized Smoothing:
- Collective and Power, due to motor governor, on both PropRotors and motors varies with the till angle.

Sensor:
Angle of the forward tilt of the two PropRotors.
Indicator of angle of attack.
Pitot tube indicator of air speed.

Thoughts re Airplane Flight Controls:
During forward flight the use of conventional fixed-wing flight controls, as compared to changes to the proprotors thrust and tilt, will probably result in the fore and aft streamtube maintaining a better alignment???
These controls should probably be mechanical for simplicity. OR, perhaps all electric for computer control.
If these controls were in conjunction with the PropRotor flight controls, they would;
- Act as a safety backup (redundancy).
- They would reduce the workload on the PropRotors' actuators.

Notes:
A lateral (X-axis) knuckle joint may likely be required for the front proprotor , but not necessarily for the rear proprotor because it has the rudder located in the slipstream.
In hover the control will be somewhat similar to that of a tandem helicopter, OTHER: Flight Dynamics - Control (Response). One difference is that the PropRotors will be extremely rigid for fast response.
Airplane control surfaces will compliment the PropRotor control and will serve as duplicity for safety. Look into further
____________________
Individual Blade Control, etc:
Perhaps a swashplate is not required.
- The PropRotors will be experiencing a remote airflow that will be very close to being normal to the rotor disks; during hover, transition and cruise. In other words, the rotors will not be experiencing the remote airflow vector that a regular helicopter experiences during cruise. For example, forward flight may be instigated by activating the transition mechanism and not by pushing the cyclic stick forward.
- Assuming that the collective is changed relatively infrequently and that 1P cyclic change is of small angles then the blade pitch actuators might connected directly to the blade instead of being used to change the plane of the swashplate.
- For forward flight; ailerons, elevator and rudder might be incorporated, They could compliment the blade pitch actuators or totally replace the use of the blade pitch actuators. This 'duplication' could be a safety feature, at least during forward flight.
Could ailerons be eliminated by the use of opposed elevators?.
Also, cyclic control may not be required.
____________________
Spider:
This may not be the way to go. Longitudinal cyclic is probably not required.

Consider shaping the props cone so that it aerodynamically screws the free airflow into cooling the motor.

Outside Information:
See
DESIGN: AeroVantage ~ PropRotor - Outside Information - BA609, V-22 and V-44 (quad), Eagle Eye TiltRotors ~or~ Flight Controls ~ V-22 Osprey

Cruise:
Gyros, accelerometers?, Velocity sensors?
Transition:
From Curtiss-Wright X-19 " Initially, the nacelle tilt rate was mechanized at 5 degrees per second. It was soon realized that this would have required a deceleration from 90km/h to hover in less than 5 seconds, resulting in 0.5g of longitudinal acceleration. This was too much, so the rate was reduced to 1 degree per second, resulting in a more reasonable 0.2g."
There is also is some information, on the site, on the time required for transition. It was copied from a students paper.
Autopilot:
Autopilot: Do it yourself UAV ~~ PCBFlyer?
And More:
Procerus Technologies Review the whole site. Kestrel™ Autopilot - heavy duty, feather-light. 16.7 grams. Introducing the world's smallest, lightest full-featured mini autopilot for small and micro UAVs.
"Design and control of quadrotors with application to autonomous flying". Saved on E-drive (stikk) as Quad-Rotor_ EPFL_TH3727.pdf
Handling Qualities Degradation in Tilt-Rotor Aircraft Following Flight Control System Failures, Saved in Removable Stick as ERF-2004-paper.pdf

Onboard Inputs:
Gyros (3) ~ Pitch, Roll and yaw
Potentiometer ~ Tilt
Potentiometer (4) ~ Collective ?

Thoughts on Operation:
Consider making the collective mechanically changed with the change of the forward tilt. In other words, the collective blade pitch increases as the PropRotors transition to Cruise. In addition, does the collective pitch change with torque (torque-pitch coupling in both hover and cruise so as to give quick response. This will result in two only cyclic rods. Note that on the XV-15 Differential collective pitch produces aircraft roll and differential cyclic pitch results in yaw motions.
Torque-Pitch is not required, or desired, because a collective exists.

Safety:
See AeroVantage ~ Control (Flight & Power) - Failure
Both configurations can accommodate safety parachutes.

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Last Revised: January 19, 2012