Flipping an Upright-Inverted Bimodal Bi-Copter UAV: Attitude Control and Optimization 

In this research, we designed a bimodal bi-copter that can fly upright and inverted. The new bi-copter is agile in the air and easy to take off, combining the pros of our two previous platforms. We adopted a quaternion-based attitude controller that helps transform the bi-copter between two states through half-flip. A detailed and accurate brushless DC motor model is built to simulate the stochastic motor reversal delay. The position offset in half-flip is minimized in simulation through particle swarm optimization (PSO). Flight experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the new bicopter.
Flip time: 0.8s
Position offset maximum: 0.8m
Max acceleration: 3g
Max angular rate: 600 deg/s
Paper under review
Shilong Ji, Yingxun Wang, and Xiang He, Flipping an Upright-Inverted Bimodal Bi-Copter UAV: Attitude Control and Optimization, 2024
DECAF Lab
shi.buaa.edu.c...
Short version video: • Flipping an Upright-In...
The inverted design: • Design and Trajectory ...