VTOL mode controller for a mini-UAV having a side-force fin

A UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) currently developed by the authors is a kind of flying wing. One of features of the UAV is its capability of vertical takeoff and landing as a tail-sitter. Thus, it is possible to operate it flexibly by reducing the space restrictions on the takeoff and landing. In this work, we designed a gain-scheduled controller for the vertical takeoff and landing, which can vary the control gain in accordance with the varying state of the vehicle. We applied a method that solves Lyapunov stability conditions on all the design points simultaneously by using linear matrix inequalities (LMI). The effectiveness of the controller is demonstrated through the numerical simulations.