Modelling and Control of Mini-Flying Machines

Modelling and Control of Mini-Flying Machinesis an exposition of models developed to assist in the motion control of various types of mini-aircraft: * Planar Vertical Take-off and Landing aircraft; * helicopters; * quadrotor mini-rotorcraft; * other fixed-wing aircraft; * blimps. For each of these it propounds: * detailed models derived from Euler-Lagrange methods; * appropriate nonlinear control strategies and convergence properties; * real-time experimental comparisons of the performance of control algorithms; * review of the principal sensors, on-board electronics, real-time architecture and communications systems for mini-flying machine control, including discussion of their performance; * detailed explanation of the use of the Kalman filter to flying machine localization. To researchers and students in nonlinear control and its applications Modelling and Control of Mini-Flying Machines provides valuable insights to the application of real-time nonlinear techniques in an always challenging area.