Master Thesis Student - Augmented Actuation Enhanced Control Authority in Tailsitter UAVs

Master Thesis Student - Augmented Actuation for Enhanced Control Authority in Tail sitter UAVs

Join to apply for the Master Thesis Student - Augmented Actuation for Enhanced Control Authority in Tail sitter UAVs role at Founderful

Tail sitter VTOL drones operate across hover and forward‑flight regimes using the same aerodynamic surfaces and shared drive trains for both hover and cruise. This coupling creates challenging flight conditions during mode transitions and makes landing and takeoff sensitive to wind gusts and ground‑effect disturbances. Furthermore, using the same propulsion system for both power‑hungry hover and efficient cruise restricts the optimization of the drivetrain.

This thesis explores enhanced control‑effectiveness concepts to increase hover control authority and improve cruise efficiency in fixed‑wing VTOL aircraft. The study combines modeling, control allocation, high‑fidelity simulation, and experimental validation on an existing platform.

• Extend and refine the simulation environment to enable rapid benchmarking of algorithms.
• Design and experiment with control allocation and flight control techniques ranging from classical optimization‑based to adaptive and learning‑augmented approaches.
• Validate the new control concept and compare it with the state of the art in flight performance, endurance, agility, and wind robustness.
• Validate results in simulation and real flights on Wingtra drones.

Wingtra provides access to hardware, flight platforms, simulation environments, and engineering expertise to enable rapid development and safe experimental validation. During the project, you are part of the Wingra team – experience the work environment in a Robotics scale‑up / ETH spin‑off, with global success and experience in the real‑world UAV industry.

• Background in control theory (nonlinear control advantageous), recursive estimation, and optimization.
• Experience with UAV dynamics or robotics modeling.
• Proficiency in C++ and Python; familiarity with PX4 beneficial.
• Motivation to conduct structured experimental work.
• Additionally to the Master thesis, a (paid) work student engagement with Wingra can be discussed.
• EU citizenship or enrollment in a Swiss institution required to comply with work‑permit regulations.

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