Modelling and Control of Mini-Flying Machines is an exposition of models developed to assist in the motion control of various types of mini-aircraft:

Planar Vertical Take-off and Landing aircraft;

helicopters;

quadrotor mini-rotorcraft;

other fixed-wing aircraft;

blimps.

For each of these it propounds:

detailed models derived from Euler-Lagrange methods;

appropriate nonlinear control strategies and convergence properties;

real-time experimental comparisons of the performance of control algorithms;

review of the principal sensors, on-board electronics, real-time architecture and communications systems for mini-flying machine control, including discussion of their performance;

detailed explanation of the use of the Kalman filter to flying machine localization. 

To researchers and students in nonlinear control and its applicationsModelling and Control of Mini-Flying Machines provides valuable insights to the application of real-time nonlinear techniques in an always challenging area.

Rogelio Lozano has worked in worked at a number of institutions with a high reputation for control engineering the University of Newcastle in Australia, Nasas Langley Research Center and now as CNRS Research Director at the University of Compiègne. He is a very experienced author in the control field being an associate editor of bothAutomaticaandInternational Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing. He is the co-author of 3 previous titles for Springer all of them in theCommunications and Control Engineering series:

Landau, I.D., Lozano, R. and MSaad, M.Adaptive Control (1997) 3-540-76187-X

Lozano, R., Brogliato, B., Egeland, O. and Maschke, B.Dissipative Systems Analysis and Control (1999) 1-85233-285-9

Fantoni, I. and Lozano, R.Non-linear Control for Underactuated Mechanical Systems (2001) 1-85233-423-1

and Historical Background.- The PVTOL Aircraft.- The Quad-rotor Rotorcraft.- Robust Prediction-based Control for Unstable Delay Systems.- Modelling and Control of Mini-helicopters.- Helicopter in a Vertical Flying Stand.- Modelling and Control of a Tandem-Wing Tail-Sitter UAV.- Modelling and Control of Small Autonomous Airships.- Sensors, Modems and Microcontrollers for UAVs.