Modeling and Control of a Tilting Rotor UAV

This dissertation aims at analyzing the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) involved in aerial manipulation strictly related to the surrounding environ- ment. In order to extend as much as possible the entire operating flying time, the main focus is on energy consumption. The dissertation takes into ac- count the architecture characterized by a quad-rotor drone with two over four tilting propellers. There is a comparison between the energy and power consumption of this new architecture with a traditional quad-rotor structure with fixed-propeller. The comparison mainly focused on two energy aspects: the instant power spent by all four motors in both cases, and the cost func- tion involved during the control of both structures. Cost functions values are extracted by an optimal control problem setting in the two different cases. Advantages and disadvantages were proved concerning the tilting rotor so- lution in terms of energy consumption and involved dynamics.