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Dynamic System Emulation: Fixed Wing Dynamics on a Multicopter

Dynamic System Emulation: Fixed Wing Dynamics on a Multicopter

Abdelhakim Amer, Andriy Sarabakha · N/A · 2026

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Summary

This work presents a control framework that enables a multicopter equipped with a two-axis gimbal to emulate the flight dynamics of a fixed-wing aircraft.

Abstract Summary

This work presents a control framework that enables a multicopter equipped with a two-axis gimbal to emulate the flight dynamics of a fixed-wing aircraft. The goal is to provide an operationally simple platform for training and simulation that avoids the aerodynamic constraints of fixed-wing vehicles, such as minimum airspeed and nonholonomic constraints. A state-input mapping between the two platforms is derived using dynamic feedback linearization. The framework is evaluated on representative fixed-wing manoeuvres. Results show high-fidelity emulation under nominal conditions. While evaluations are conducted in simulation, the approach establishes a practical path toward hardware deployment for pilot training, autonomy research, and controller benchmarking.

Key Points

  • This work presents a control framework that enables a multicopter equipped with a two-axis gimbal to emulate the flight dynamics of a fixed-wing aircraft.
  • The goal is to provide an operationally simple platform for training and simulation that avoids the aerodynamic constraints of fixed-wing vehicles, such as minimum airspeed and nonholonomic constraints.
  • A state-input mapping between the two platforms is derived using dynamic feedback linearization
  • The framework is evaluated on representative fixed-wing manoeuvres
  • Results show high-fidelity emulation under nominal conditions

Preliminaries

Quaternions $\mathbf{q}\in\mathbb{H}_{1}$ are scalar-first, their conjugate are $\bar{\mathbf{q}}\in\mathbb{H}_{1}$, and $\mathbf{R}(\mathbf{q})\in SO(3)$ denotes the corresponding rotation matrix. Also, let $\mathcal{F}_{\text{W}}$ be the inertial world frame. Fixed-wing aircraft (in Fig. 1 ) are underactuated dynamic systems. Let $\mathcal{F}_{\text{A}}$ be the aircraft’s body frame.

Preliminaries — Dynamic System Emulation: Fixed Wing Dynamics on a Multicopter
Fig. 1: Fixed-wing aircraft shown with its reference frames, control inputs (in red) and output variables (in blue).

Camera-Pose Controllability and Mimicry on S ​ E ​ ( 3 ) SE(3)

Assume the fixed-wing carries a camera that is body-aligned and located at a fixed lever arm $\mathbf{t}_{\text{AC}}\in\mathbb{R}^{3}$ expressed in $\mathcal{F}_{\text{A}}$.

Then, the fixed-wing camera pose is We expose (i) a translational “virtual” input $\,\mathbf{a}_{\text{MC}}\in\mathbb{R}^{3}$ realized by the standard $SE(3)$ inner loop (third line of ( 9 )), and (ii) rotational inputs $\dot{\boldsymbol{\Theta}}_{\text{MC}}=\begin{bmatrix}\dot{\phi}_{\text{G}}&\dot{\theta}_{\text{G}}&\dot{\psi}_{\text{M}}\end{bmatrix}^{\top}$ consisting of...

Camera-Pose Controllability and Mimicry on S ​ E ​ ( 3 ) SE(3) — Dynamic System Emulation: Fixed Wing Dynamics on a Multicopter
Fig. 2: Multicopter with two-axis gimbal shown with its reference frames, control inputs (in red) and output variables (in blue).

Proposed Method

Given the fixed-wing camera trajectory $\mathbf{y}_{\text{AC}}(t)$ in ( 10 ), we want to compute multicopter and gimbal inputs, such that the multicopter camera pose $\mathbf{y}_{\text{MC}}(t)$ in ( 6 ) satisfies $\mathbf{y}_{\text{MC}}(t)\equiv\mathbf{y}_{\text{AC}}(t)\quad\forall t$. To enable multicopter tracking aggressive manoeuvres, non-linear control techniques must be used.

Dynamic feedback linearization (DFL) could be designed to achieve better convergence and robustness.

Proposed Method — Dynamic System Emulation: Fixed Wing Dynamics on a Multicopter
Fig. 5: 3D trajectories of the fixed-wing aircraft (red), multicopter position (blue), and gimbal camera position (3-D axis) for level flight.

Validation Results

To validate the proposed DFL controller for camera-pose mimicry, we simulate a multicopter equipped with a 2-axis gimbal tracking the flight of a Red Bull Edge 540 [ 17 ] aerobatic aircraft. The Edge 540 was selected for its aggressive maneuvering capabilities, providing a challenging test case for the controller.

The multicopter chosen is the Freefly Alta-X platform [ 18 ] , featuring a high thrust-to-weight ratio necessary for tracking high-speed trajectories while maintaining control authority as required by Assumption 2 .

Validation Results — Dynamic System Emulation: Fixed Wing Dynamics on a Multicopter
Fig. 7: 3D trajectories of the fixed-wing aircraft (red), multicopter position (blue), and gimbal camera position (3-D axis) for loop manoeuvres.

Sources and Demonstrations

Figures are reproduced from Amer et al. See the full paper for experimental details and the project page, when the paper links one, for demonstrations and videos.

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