UAV blocks

class roboticstoolbox.blocks.uav.MultiRotor(*args: Any, **kwargs: Any)

Bases: ContinuousBlock

MULTIROTOR

Dynamic model of a multi-rotor flying robot.

Inputs:

1

Outputs:

1

States:

16

Port type	Port number	Types	Description
Input	0	ndarray(N)	\(\varpi\), rotor velocities in (radians/sec)
Output	0	dict	\(\mathit{x}\), vehicle state

Dynamic model of a multi-rotor flying robot that includes rotor flapping. The vehicle state is a dict containing the following items:

• x pose in the world frame as \([x, y, z, \theta_Y, \theta_P, \theta_R]\)

• trans position and velocity in the world frame as \([x, y, z, \dot{x}, \dot{y}, \dot{z}]\)

• rot orientation and angular rate in the world frame as \([\theta_Y, \theta_P, \theta_R, \dot{\theta_Y}, \dot{\theta_P}, \dot{\theta_R}]\)

• vb translational velocity in the body frame as \([\dot{x}, \dot{y}, \dot{z}]\)

• w angular rates in the body frame as

  \([\dot{\theta_Y}, \dot{\theta_P}, \dot{\theta_R}]\)

• a1s longitudinal flapping angles (radians)

• b1s lateral flapping angles (radians)

• X full state vector as \([x, y, z, \theta_Y, \theta_P, \theta_R, \dot{x}, \dot{y}, \dot{z}, \dot{\theta_Y}, \dot{\theta_P}, \dot{\theta_R}]\)

The dynamic model is a dict with the following key/value pairs.

key	description
nrotors	Number of rotors (even integer)
J	Flyer rotational inertia matrix (3x3)
h	Height of rotors above CoG
d	Length of flyer arms
nb	Number of blades per rotor
r	Rotor radius
c	Blade chord
e	Flapping hinge offset
Mb	Rotor blade mass
Mc	Estimated hub clamp mass
ec	Blade root clamp displacement
Ib	Rotor blade rotational inertia
Ic	Estimated root clamp inertia
mb	Static blade moment
Ir	Total rotor inertia
Ct	Non-dim. thrust coefficient
Cq	Non-dim. torque coefficient
sigma	Rotor solidity ratio
thetat	Blade tip angle
theta0	Blade root angle
theta1	Blade twist angle
theta75	3/4 blade angle
thetai	Blade ideal root approximation
a	Lift slope gradient
A	Rotor disc area
gamma	Lock number

Note

• Based on MATLAB code developed by Pauline Pounds 2004.

• SI units are used.

• Rotor velocity is defined looking down, clockwise from the front rotor which lies on the x-axis.

References:

• Design, Construction and Control of a Large Quadrotor micro air vehicle. P.Pounds, PhD thesis Australian National University, 2007.

• Robotics, Vision & Control by Peter Corke, sec 4.2 in all editions

Seealso:

MultiRotorMixer MultiRotorPlot

__init__(model, groundcheck=True, speedcheck=True, x0=None, **blockargs)

Create a multi-rotor dynamic model block.

Parameters:

• model (dict) – A dictionary of vehicle geometric and inertial properties

• groundcheck (bool) – Prevent vehicle moving below ground \(z>0\), defaults to True

• speedcheck (bool) – Check for non-positive rotor speed, defaults to True

• x0 (array_like(6) or array_like(12), optional) – Initial state, defaults to None

• blockargs (dict) – common Block options

class roboticstoolbox.blocks.uav.MultiRotorMixer(*args: Any, **kwargs: Any)

Bases: FunctionBlock

MULTIROTORMIXER

Speed mixer for a multi-rotor flying vehicle.

Inputs:

4

Outputs:

1

States:

0

Port type	Port number	Types	Description
Input	0	float	\(\tau_R\), roll torque
Input	1	float	\(\tau_P\), pitch torque
Input	2	float	\(\tau_Y\), yaw torque
Input	3	float	\(T\), total thrust
Output	0	ndarray(N)	\(\varpi\), rotor speeds

This block converts airframe moments and total thrust into a 1D array of rotor speeds which can be input to the MULTIROTOR block.

The model is a dict with the following key/value pairs.

key	description
nrotors	Number of rotors (even integer)
h	Height of rotors above CoG
d	Length of flyer arms
r	Rotor radius

Note

Based on MATLAB code developed by Pauline Pounds 2004.

Seealso:

MultiRotor MultiRotorPlot

__init__(model=None, wmax=1000, wmin=5, **blockargs)

Parameters:

• model (dict) – A dictionary of vehicle geometric and inertial properties

• maxw (float) – maximum rotor speed in rad/s, defaults to 1000

• minw (float) – minimum rotor speed in rad/s, defaults to 5

• blockargs (dict) – common Block options

class roboticstoolbox.blocks.uav.MultiRotorPlot(*args: Any, **kwargs: Any)

Bases: GraphicsBlock

MULTIROTORPLOT

Displays/animates a multi-rotor flying vehicle.

Inputs:

1

Outputs:

0

States:

0

Port type	Port number	Types	Description
Input	0	dict	\(\mathit{x}\), vehicle state

Animate a multi-rotor flying vehicle using Matplotlib graphics. The rotors are shown as circles and their orientation includes rotor flapping which can be exagerated by flapscale.

Example of quad-rotor display.

The input is a dictionary signal and the block requires the items:

• x pose in the world frame as \([x, y, z, \theta_Y, \theta_P, \theta_R]\)

• a1s rotor flap angle

• b1s rotor flap angle

The model is a dict with the following key/value pairs.

key	description
nrotors	Number of rotors (even integer)
h	Height of rotors above CoG
d	Length of flyer arms
r	Rotor radius

Note

Based on MATLAB code developed by Pauline Pounds 2004.

Seealso:

MultiRotor MultiRotorMixer

PLOT3D = True

TIMESTAMP = True

__init__(model, scale=None, flapscale=1, projection='ortho', **blockargs)

Parameters:

• model (dict) – A dictionary of vehicle geometric and inertial properties

• scale (array_like, optional) – dimensions of workspace: xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax, zmin, zmax, defaults to [-2,2,-2,2,10]

• flapscale (float) – exagerate flapping angle by this factor, defaults to 1

• projection (str) – 3D projection, one of: ‘ortho’ [default], ‘perspective’

• blockargs (dict) – common GraphicsBlock options