Aerodynamic Derivatives Identification of a Fixed-Wing UAV using Flight Data

This paper presents a general procedure for identifying aerodynamic derivatives using flight data, that is applicable to fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) UAV in fixed-wing mode. The proposed method comprises seven steps, including eigenmode analysis, input design, flight data collection, data processing, model structure determination, aerodynamic derivatives identification, and model validation. The software tools AVL, MATLAB, PX4, and QGroundControl were deployed for the development and implementation of the method. Furthermore, the validation of the proposed method was carried out using flight test data collected with a low-cost fixed-wing UAV.