Identification and Validation of the Electromechanical Actuator of the UAV Propulsion System

Abstract

This paper presents a method for the identification and validation of the electromechanical actuator dynamic model of the UAV propulsion system. Initially, a first principles dynamic model of the electromechanical actuator is introduced. An experimental platform was designed and implemented to acquire the identification and validation datasets. The standard system identification loop was applied for the experiment design, the set of candidate models, and the validation criterion. The best model was selected from the set and validated from a control point of view. The identification and validation results show that the first principles white box model: (i) agrees better with the experimental data than the proposed black box model; (ii) captures the input-output behavior; and (iii) represents the system with sufficient accuracy for closed-loop control of the rotor speed.