Transfer functions to simulate quadcopter rotor behaviour

Hi all

i am learning up on quadcopters, and how they fly and how they control their various degrees of freedom.

In MATLAB, i understand that in a close loop system, the transfer function in Simulink behaves as the "plant", which is essentially the quadcopter actuators.

Is there any particular transfer functions that model closely their behaviour ?

Is the aerospace blockset helpful for such modelling and simulation purposes?

Best regards all

Answer 1

[Raj]

1) In a close loop system, the transfer function in Simulink behaves as the "plant", which is essentially the quadcopter actuators - I am not sure if that's completely correct. When you say 'plant' it includes everything right from your sensors, actuators and the quadcopter itself. The controller commands the actuators, the quadcopter responds and you get the output data/states from your sensors which are used to close the control loop again via the controller.

2) Is there any particular transfer functions that model closely their behaviour ?- What is 'their behaviour' here? There are generic models of sensors and actuators in simulink which you can tune and use There are couple of DOF demo models. Also you can give a check on file exchange. Pretty sure you'll find some flight control models there.

3) Is the aerospace blockset helpful for such modelling and simulation purposes?- I would say yes but again it depends on what exacly you are trying to do. Give a quick read about aerospace blockset here and decide for yourself.

[Kiat Nern Yeo]

Hi Raj. Thanks for replying !

My objective is actually to see if i can tune a PID controller based on sensor inputs, interactively. So meaning i would like to run external mode, move the sensors around and see if i can let MATLAB's tuning feature for its PID controllers create an output that is stable.