Nonlinear Identification of Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle

S.A. Salman A. G. Sreenatha

University College,Australian Defence force Academy, ADFA@UNSW
Northcott Drive, Canberra ACT 2600 , AUSTRALIA
[s.salman , a.g.sreenatha]@adfa.edu.au ,
http://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au

Abstract
Unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) have been playing
an increasingly important role in military and civilian
operations and have been used in many fields.
Controller design for UAV is subject to time varying
and non-linear model parameters. Hence, identification
of the mathematical model is an important process in
controller design. In this paper, we use nonlinear state
space identification for UAV. Using the flight data,
nonlinear state space model for UAV is derived and
verified. Simulation results show that the model
dynamics match experimental data.

Keywords: Nonlinear identification, state space,
unmanned aircraft vehicle.

1. Introduction
When the system to be modeled is UAV, the models
are generally dynamic with multiple inputs and
outputs, and the measurements are noisy. While
significant progress has been made in identification of
linear systems over the broad spectrum of aerospace
applications, insufficient research has been performed
to identify the nonlinear flight dynamics [1]. It has
been recognized that the significant improvements of
dynamic performance of current and new generation of
advanced airplanes is possible if flight systems design
integrates nonlinear analysis, control, and
Identification [2]. Identification of nonlinear multi-
input multi-output vehicles is a challenging problem
and the current interest has been shifted to the issues of
handling the nonlinear identification. In this paper, a
nonlinear mapping identification concept [2-5] is
applied to identify the unknown parameters of
multivariable UAV which is mapped by nonlinear
differential equations. This method is developed upon
the assumption that a model structure is available. The
test flights to collect the data are conducted in
ADFA@UNSW.

2. State space Identification
The nonlinear mapping identification method [2-5]
considers the system in the form
) , ( ) ( u x F t x = , , , (1) 0 > t
0 0
) ( x t x =
where is the vector of the measured states with
initial conditions
c
R x e
0 0
) ( x t x = ; is the known input
vector; denotes a continuous vector function
which is defined on
m
R u e
) , ( u x F
{ } 0 \
c
R with . 0 ) 0 , 0 ( = F
System (1) can be written in the matrix state space
form as
) , ( ) ( u x Af t x = , , , (2) 0 > t
0 0
) ( x t x =
where
cxn
R Ae is the real matrix; denotes a
given real analytic function, .
) , ( u x f
n m c
R xR R f - : ) (
The identified state space model is
) , ( ) ( u x f A t x
m m m
= , , , (3) 0 > t
0 0
) (
m m
x t x =
The main goal of this selection is to identify the
coefficient of matrix .
m
A
The normalized parameter error matrix
cxn
R Ae A is
defined as

m
A A A = A (4)
The state error vector,


, ) ( , 0 ), , , ( ) , (
) ( ) ( ) (
0 0
x t x t u x x f A u x Af
t x t x t x
m m
m
A = A > A + A =
= A
is introduced. Here, ) , ( ) , ( ) , , ( u x f u x f u x x f
m m m
= A
The error vector is defined as
) , , ( ) ( ) ( u x x f A t x t e
m m
A A =
Using the differential equation for the normalized
parameter error matrix (4)

0 0
) ( , , ) , ( A t A R K K u x ef A
nxn T
A = A e = A

K is a weighting matrix and it is chosen by me.

one obtains

0 0
) ( , ) , ( ) ( ) (
m m
T
m
A t A K u x ef t A t A = + =

since the system (2) is time invariant, so . 0 ) ( = t A

Then, we have the following nonlinear equation

ACSE 05 Conference, 19-21 December 2005, CICC, Cairo, Egypt
0 0
) (
) , ( )] , , ( ) ( [ ) (
m m
T
m m m
A t A
K u x f u x x f A t x t A
=
A A =

(5)

3. Identification of Unmanned aircraft
Vehicle
To validate the reported identification algorithm, we
consider an unmanned aircraft. The aircraft dynamics
are mapped by a set of three highly coupled nonlinear
differential equations as given by

th
a
r
e
m m
m m m m
m m
m m m m m
m m m
m m m m m
r
p
r
q
p
qr
pr
pq
A A
A A A A
A A
A A A A A
A A A
A A A A A
r
q
p
o
o
o
o
2
2
311 310
212 29 28 27
111 110
36 35 34 33 31
26 25 22
16 15 14 13 11
0 0 0 0
0 0
0 0 0 0

0
0 0 0
0

where are the roll, pitch and yaw
rates respectively, and
) ( and ), ( ), ( t r t q t p
th a r e
o o o o and , , , are the
elevator, ruder, aileron and throttle servos displacement
respectively.

The state vector is given by

=
) (
) (
) (
) (
t r
t q
t p
t x

, is given by ) , ( t x f
| |
T
th a r e
r p r q p qr pr pq t x f o o o o
2 2
) , ( =
,
and the parameter matrix is given by

=
0 0 0 0
0 0
0 0 0 0

0
0 0 0
0
) (
311 310
212 29 28 27
111 110
36 35 34 33 31
26 25 22
16 15 14 13 11
m m
m m m m
m m
m m m m m
m m m
m m m m m
m
A A
A A A A
A A
A A A A A
A A A
A A A A A
t A


4. Flight data collection
Flight tests are carried out to collect a range of data for
differing flight conditions. Inertial Navigation Unit
with three axis gyros and accelerometers is employed
for this. Figures 1 and 2 show the test flight data for a
typical condition.

As shown in these figures 1 and 2 the data is noisy.
Initially, the original data is used for identification.
Later on the data is filtered by taking the average for
three subsequent points. This is shown in Figure 3.
















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85
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v
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Figure 1 Input flight Data



















Figure 2 Sensor output flight data
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Figure 3 filtered sensor output flight data
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p
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a
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ACSE 05 Conference, 19-21 December 2005, CICC, Cairo, Egypt
5. Results
first, we used the data as it is and we didnt apply any
filtering. In the identification algorithm, we switch it
on for the first five points then switch it off for the next
20
th
.
Figure 4 shows the identified model (Bold) and the
flight data (gray). From the simulation, the identified
model and flight data match very well.




















Figure 4 Identified model (bold) and flight data (gray)

Figure 5 shows the identified model (Bold) and the
flight data (gray) after applying filtering to the flight
data. This seems to be giving a better identified model.




















Figure 5 After applying filtering ,Identified model (bold) and flight
data (gray)

6. Conclusion
A nonlinear mapping identification concept is applied
to identify the unknown parameters of multivariable
UAV which is mapped by nonlinear differential
equations. The method is based on the nonlinear model
structure for UAV. Simulation results show that very
good match between the flight data and the simulated
data. After applying the filtering for the data, the
results from identification are much better. The main
disadvantage of this algorithm is that, it starts with a
given structure. It is quite likely that another structure
may give better results. Hence, the work is continuing
to come up with an identification algorithm that does
not require a structure.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
1.5
2
2.5
3
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t
)
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t
)
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a
d
/
s
e
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Bold Identified model
Gray Flight data

7. References:
[1] Morelli, E. A, System identification Programs for
aircraft (SIDPAC), AIAA Atmospheric Flight
Mechanics Conference, Aug.5-8, 2002, Monterey,
Canada.
[2] Lyshevski, State-space identification of nonlinear
flight dynamics, Proceeding of the 1997 IEEE
International Conference on Control Applications,
Hartford, CT, October 5-7, 1997.
[3] Lyshevski and Chen Nonlinear identification of
aircraft Proceeding of the 1996 IEEE
International Conference on Control Applications,
Dearborn, MI, September 15-18, 1996.
[4] Pappano, Lyshevski, and Friedland, Nonlinear
identification of induction motor parameters,
Proceeding of the American Control Conference,
San Diego, California, June 1999.
[5] Lyshevski, Identification of nonlinear flight
dynamics: theory and practice, IEEE Trans. On
Aerospace and Electronic Systems, Vol. 36, No. 2,
April 2000
[6] Gerber, Design of an autopilot for model aircraft,
final year project thesis, UNSW@ADFA, October
2004
3.5





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ACSE 05 Conference, 19-21 December 2005, CICC, Cairo, Egypt