• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.130-136
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• 2002

In this paper, a flight test method is described for the system identification of the unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with an automatic flight control system. Multistep inputs are applied for both longitudinal mode and lateral/directional excitation. Optimal time step for excitation is sought to provide the broad input bandwidth. A programmed mode flight test method provides high-quality flight data for system identification using the flight control computer with the longitudinal and lateral/directional autopilot which enables the separation of each motion during the flight test. In addition, exact actuating input that is almost equivalent to the designed one guarantees the highest input frequency attainable. Several repetitive flight tests were implemented in the calm air in order to extract the consistent system model for the air vehicle. The enhanced airborne data acquisition system endowed the high-quality flight data for the system identification. The flight data were effectively used to the system identification of the unmanned aerial vehicle.