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In theory, tailsitter VTOL aircraft are incredibly simplejust add a wing to something like a quadcopter, pitch it over 90 degrees, and cash in on the sweet, sweet efficiency benefits of forward flight. But there are actually 4 key challenges to address in the flight controller for a smooth transition between hover and forward flight.

Patreon:   / nicholasrehm  
My Website: https://www.drehmflight.com/
dRehmFlight VTOL flight controller used in this video: https://www.drehmflight.com/drehmflig...
Tailsitter specific code: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...

Drone flight controllers that support transitioning VTOL configurations often simplify the complex task of performing a transition to the flick of a switch. This is awesome for people who like stuff that just works, but terrible for people that like to understand how things work. So how do you actually tell a flight controller to perform a VTOL transition? Rather, how does a flight controller tell the airplane to perform a transition? Tailsitter VTOLs need extra care in the flight controller through their transition, mainly because the definitions of roll and yaw control with respect to the body flip between hover and forward flight. This requires careful remapping of stabilized controls out to the motors and servos, in addition to a flip of the fundamental aircraft frame of reference. Another key to a smooth transition is tuning PID gains separately for each flight mode, and ensuring a seamless and smooth fade between all of these flight mode differences. This video covers how I did this using a little bit of custom code in my opensource flight controller, dRehmFlight. If you found this video interesting, don’t forget to subscribe so you can be up to date on future projects like this!

Intro: 00:00
Flight Controller Basics: 00:54
Problem 1 Switching Roll & Yaw: 02:58
Problem 2 Switching Frame of Reference: 04:30
Problem 3 Gain Staging: 06:58
Problem 4 Smoothing it Out: 08:04
Conclusions & Crashes: 09:45

#VTOL #Tailsitter