Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2010, Electrical Engineering (Engineering and Technology)

This thesis presents the design, development, and experimental verification of an embedded vehicle controller applied to a hovering small unmanned aerial system dubbed the UFO. The effort demonstrated the feasibility of implementation of advanced nonlinear controller designs in embedded hardware to achieve increased system performance. Furthermore, it was shown that the controller implementation was not penalized due to size, weight, and power build-up typically associated with vehicles in this class. Performance was verified experimentally through simulation case studies that subjected the vehicle and embedded controller to various real-world considerations. Finally, justification of approach occurred through analysis of the experimental results.

Committee: J. Jim Zhu (Advisor) Subjects: Electrical Engineering; Engineering