Design of PID controller and fan wing controller for FanWing

FanWing, a concept for embedding a cross-flow fan into a thick wing for lift enhancement and thrust production, is a new kind of aircraft. Since the action position of the fan wing is after the center of gravity, the rotation of the cross-flow fan produces lift, thrust, and an additional pitch-down moment. Although FanWing has achieved great success at the air shows, scientists mainly concentrate on optimizing the fan wing structure to improve the characteristics of the power system and the dynamic performance of FanWing but rarely consider the control system. There is still a lot of work to do on theoretical research and engineering applications. Thus, the present paper will do some research on the control systems, including two control methods: the traditional elevator, aileron, and rudder control method and the fan wing control method. The influence of the additional pitch-down moment is researched. Based on the study of a 3.5 kg FanWing, the proportional integral differential (PID) controllers are designed. The proposed fan wing controller has been compared with the traditional PID one. The simulations show the effectiveness of the proposed fan wing controller in terms of the nonlinear simulation.