• control allocation
• modeling
• multirotor
• protoype
• tiltrotor
• VTOL

Nowadays, air mobility has attracted significant interest in designing and developing aircraft with VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) features.
However, the available VTOL platforms are either excessively expensive or quasi-black boxes concerning software customization. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the implementation of control allocation techniques on an e-VTOL prototype. The aircraft model was built following an existing design that aesthetically mimics the F35-B airplane and adopts low-cost components and user-friendly firmware. Alongside the technical examination of the VTOL hardware and software, the study of the physical relations of the system dynamics led to the construction of a mathematical model.
The model implementation in the MATLAB/Simulink environment allowed an assessment of control allocation on the simulated aircraft during the three available configurations, i.e., hovering, transition and forward flight. Simulation results show that the designed control allocation algorithms comply with the characteristics of the e-VTOL and behaves consistently with the pre-existing Flight Controller. However, it was evident from the investigation that the aircraft's control performance could be increased by making simple changes to the platform structure (i.e., removing the design limitation induced by the choice of mechanical parts). The modifications allowed us to perform simulative tests on both the original and the updated design. Together with the construction of the high-customizable physical model of VTOL, the modular nature of the Simulink model provides a promising tool for studying different control allocation algorithms in addition to the proposed ones.