Design and stabilization of a Coandă effect-based UAV: Comparative study between fuzzy logic and PID control approaches

Abstract

Recent years have experienced a notable surge in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) research, prompting exploration into innovative concepts. This paper introduces a compact UAV harnessing the Coand˘a effect, an underexplored phenomenon in fluid mechanics. Featuring a single lift motor and two types of flaps, this UAV offers exceptional maneuverability, presenting significant challenges compared to conventional multi-rotor UAVs. To address these challenges, we explore the theoretical study, mechatronic design, and manufacturing complexities of the Coand˘a UAV. Emphasizing the distinctiveness of our work, we assess a Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) for UAV stabilization, marking the first application of such techniques to a Coand˘a-effect UAV, in contrast to the Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control employed by other researchers. This innovative application of Fuzzy logic, particularly the Sugeno model, proves advantageous, offering faster and more robust control in uncertain or noisy environments. The proposed FLC strategy is systematically compared against a classical PID control approach, formulated based on the Mamdani and Sugeno models, optimized and manually tuned using a genetic algorithm. Our results showcase a significantly improved settling time of 0.417 s with the FLC strategy, surpassing the PID control approach by 35.23%. To substantiate our findings, we present comprehensive experimentation conducted at both software and hardware levels using Matlab® and Simulink for a microcontroller-based UAV. This groundbreaking fusion of novel design and advanced control techniques not only addresses the unique challenges posed by the Coand˘a UAV’s aerodynamics but also contributes significantly to the field of UAV research.