Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been more and more widely used not only in military areas but also in civilian and commercial areas nowadays. UAVs could be categorized by fixed-wing aircrafts and rotor-crafts. In contrast with other fixed-wing aircrafts, the helicopters could take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards and laterally....[ Read more ]

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been more and more widely used not only in military areas but also in civilian and commercial areas nowadays. UAVs could be categorized by fixed-wing aircrafts and rotor-crafts. In contrast with other fixed-wing aircrafts, the helicopters could take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards and laterally.

Miniature helicopters are more agile and unstable than the full-size counterparts in the flight. Development of a reliable high-performance helicopter-based unmanned aerial vehicle requires an accurate and robust model that contains essential aerodynamic of the helicopter in typical flight conditions.

This thesis presents a method of experimental setup and results of the dynamic modeling of a miniature unmanned helicopter (Trex-500). Working from first principle and basic aerodynamics, the equations of motion for full six degree-of-freedom with flybar-degree of freedom are derived. The experiment is setup to test the thrust of the main rotor and verify the model structure in the hover condition.