Longitudinal Control of a Tilt-rotor VTOL UAV using Incremental Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion

This publication presents a longitudinal incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion (INDI) control approach for a tilt-rotor aircraft. This control scheme is valid in all relevant flight states and thus does not require switching between different controllers or utilizing scheduled variables. The control approach is demonstrated in a simulation environment, showing that it is capable of performing transitions from hover to fixed-wing flight and vice versa while following a given velocity and altitude trajectory.