DYNAMIC STABILITY FLIGHT TESTS OF REMOTE SENSING MEASUREMENT CAPABLE AMPHIBIOUS UNMANMetehan YAYLA, Selahattin Burak SARSILMAZ, Talha MUTLU, Volkan COSGUN, Bedri KURTULU Remote sensing techniques are widely used in earth sciences. Satellites and manned aircrafts are most common method for capturing remote sensing images. However, these techniques have some major disadvantages such as, high price, low image resolution, time restriction. Amphibious Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (A-UAV) is designed to integrate remote sensing measurement sensors to a Mini-UAV [Mutlu, 2012]. It can perform a 30 minutes of flight with 1 kg payload and 4 kg maximum take-off weight (MOTW). Main performance characteristics of A-UAV such as maximum velocity, rate-of-climb, and turn radius have been investigated [Mutlu, 2013]. This paper presents the dynamic stability tests of A-UAV. Sensor calibration curves are obtained before the tests via horseshoe and tower fly by methods. Dynamic stability tests focus on exciting longitudinal and lateral-directional modes -phugoid, short period; dutch roll, spiral and roll- of the A-UAV. Convergence characteristics of each mode are investigated during the tests. |