The dynamics of the swashplate mechanism of a VTOL unmanned aerial vehicle

The dynamics of the swashplate mechanism of the CL-327, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with a Vertical Take-Off-and-Landing (VTOL) ability is discus sed in this paper, the underlying kinematics having been discussed in an ea rlier paper. The CL-327 (Guardian) is currently under production by Bombard ier Services-Defence, and is considered the world's most versatile and adva nced VTOL system in production. The steering control mechanism used in all helicopters, including the CL-327, is a complex multiloop kinematic chain o ften called the swashplate mechanism. In this paper a dynamic analysis of t he particular design used for the swashplate of the CL-327 is discussed. Th e Newton-Euler formulation is used in conjunction with the natural orthogon al complement in order to derive the equations of motion of the system.