Modeling, simulation and control of a spincopter

In this article we present a mathematical model of a spincopter - an inherently stable and easy to control unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Although the devised model represents only the first approximation of spincopter´s physics, it captures basic phenomena that are sufficient for derivation and testing of a simple control algorithm. Results obtained by simulations in Simulink^®, presented herein, demonstrate efficient performance of the proposed simple controller structure. Further tests, including investigation of complex aerodynamics effects and hardware-specified limitations, have been done using X-Plane^® software package. Finally, the proposed controller has been tested experimentally. Both, X-Plane^® and experimental results confirmed the outcome from Simulink^®.