Multi-Lifting-Device UAV Autonomous Flight at Any Transition Percentage C. De Wagter & D. Dokter & G. de Croon & B. Remes Abstract Hybrid UAVs with hovering as well as fast forward flight capability or enhanced maneuverability are expected to become increasingly important. To ap- proach the complex problem of autonomous flight in the full flight envelope of these transitioning or reconfiguring vehicles, a simple but powerful approach is presented. A traditional rotorcraft control strategy consisting of an attitude innerloop and po- sition outerloop is enhanced with a lift allocation controller in between. By running several sub-controllers per lift-device, simplicity is kept while allowing sustained flight at any transitioning percentage for any number of lifting devices. The appli- cations of this approach range from hover of fixedwings, or allowing easier fast for- ward flight of conventional rotorcraft to autonomous flight of most types of hybrid or reconfiguring UAVs. Flight test results are presented using the ATMOS hybrid UAV. Christophe De Wagter Micro Aerial Vehicle Lab, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Kluyverweg 1, 2629HS Delft, the Netherlands, e-mail: C.deWagter@tudelft.nl Dirk Dokter Micro Aerial Vehicle Lab, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Kluyverweg 1, 2629HS Delft, the Netherlands e-mail: D.Dokter@student.tudelft.nl Guido de Croon Micro Aerial Vehicle Lab, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Kluyverweg 1, 2629HS Delft, the Netherlands e-mail: G.C.H.E.deCroon@tudelft.nl Bart Remes Micro Aerial Vehicle Lab, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Kluyverweg 1, 2629HS Delft, the Netherlands e-mail: B.D.W.Remes@tudelft.nl 1 Proceedings of the EuroGNC 2013, 2nd CEAS Specialist Conference on Guidance, Navigation & Control, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, April 10-12, 2013 FrAT2.1 1190