Fixed Wing UAVs

ExtremeStar

Extreme Star

Wingspan 1.42 m
Take Off Weight 3.2 kg
Flight Control System Custom FCC + COTS IMU
Application Nonlinear Adaptive Control, Control Allocation
Point of Contact Alexander Zollitsch

The FSD ExtremeStar is a high agility model airplane with 16 independent control inputs, including actuated canards and thrust vector control. It is used as a testbed to investigate nonlinear and adaptive control approaches as well as control allocation algorithms.

Edge 540

Edge 540

Wingspan 1.215 m
Take Off Weight 1.1 kg
Flight Control System Graupner GR-24 PRO with custom software
Application Basic Stability Augmentation Systems, Student Education
Point of Contact Christoph Krause

The Edge 540 is a commercial off-the-shelf aerobatic model airplane with a high thrust to weight ratio. It is used for investigations on basic stability augmentation systems, student education and to carry sensor payloads.

StudentSnail

StudentSnail

Wingspan 1.4 m
Take Off Weight 1.0 kg
Flight Control System AscTec Autopilot + PWM generator
Application GPS Waypoint Flight, Student Education
Point of Contact Thomas Raffler

The FSD StudentSnail is a simple model airplane with 5 control inputs. Due to the high-wing configuration and the large dihedral, it exhibits a distinct roll-yaw coupling. It is mainly used for student education.

Multirotor UAVs

AscTec Hummingbird 1

AscTec Hummingbird (outdoor)

Rotor Distance 0.34 m
Take Off Weight 0.56 kg
Flight Control System AscTec Autopilot + FSD Multirotor FCC
Application Dynamic outdoor flight, GNSS aided navigation
Point of Contact Thomas Raffler

The AscTec Hummingbird is a small quadrotor UAV that is equipped with inertial sensors and a dedicated, real time linux based flight control computer. Its main purpose is research in dynamic outdoor flight with GNSS aided navigation. Additionally, it appears in live demonstrations during the lectures Flight Control 2 and Nonlinear Adaptive Flight Control.

AscTec Hummingbird 2

AscTec Hummingbird (indoor)

Rotor Distance 0.34 m
Take Off Weight 0.65 kg
Flight Control System AscTec Autopilot
Application Indoor flight with external tracking system
Point of Contact Jian Wang

Our second AsTec Hummingbird features a protective frame and flexible propellers which makes it ideally suited for flight experiments in tight indoor areas. As part of our institute’s tour it is often shown in conjunction with a low-cost optical tracking system.

AscTec Pelican

AscTec Pelican

Rotor Distance 0.42 m
Take Off Weight 1.05 kg
Flight Control System AscTec Autopilot + AscTec Atomboard
Application Image aided flight control
Point of Contact Jian Wang

The AscTec Pelican is a quadrotor that carries cameras and an additional onboard computer for image processing. It is mainly used for image aided flight control.

AscTec Firefly (2x)

AscTec Firefly

Rotor Distance 0.43 m
Take Off Weight 1.0 kg
Flight Control System AscTec Autopilot + AscTec Mastermind
Application Fault tolerant flight control, Swarm exploration
Point of Contact Guillermo Falconí, Maximilian Mühlegg

The AscTec Firefly with its redundant six-rotor propulsion system is used for fault tolerant flight control research and swarm exploration. It has an additional, powerful onboard computer for image processing and navigation.

Missiles

Experimental Missile – xM1

Experimental Missile xM1

Length 1.82 m
Diameter 0.09 m
Mass 9.3 kg
Maximum velocity ca. 200 m/s (Mach 0.6)
Boost time 4.8 s
Maximum height 1400 m
Maximum acceleration 70 m/s²

The xM1 is a canard-controlled experimental missile with fixed fins, solid booster propulsion and a two-staged parachute recovery system. It is designed to perform subsonic test flights with advanced control algorithms as well as camera-aided navigation and target tracking.

Experimental Missile – xM2

Experimental Missile xM2

Length 0.93 m
Diameter 0.078 m
Mass 4.05 kg
Maximum velocity ca. 180 m/s (Mach 0.53)
Boost time 1.9 s
Maximum height 1000 m
Maximum acceleration 130 m/s²

The xM2 is the second generation of re-usable canard-controlled experimental missiles at FSD. The improved system design uses a more robust single-staged recovery system and a modular propulsion compartment to fulfill the demands of different sensors and test scenario. At the same time, it reduces the missiles weight and size almost by half compared to xM1.

Special Configurations

ITB Flying Car

ITB Flying Car

Length 1.11 m
Take Off Weight 3.5 kg
Flight Control System Custom Baseboard with ARM Cortex-M4 µC, ADIS IMU and GPS receiver + Gumstix based flight control computer
Application Control of asymmetric multirotors, combined ground and flight control
Point of Contact Thomas Raffler

This unconventional multirotor design is the object of a joint project with the Center for Unmanned System Studies (CentrUMS) at Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB). It is used as a testbed for a new flight control system and for research on combined flight and ground control.