This report investigates the flight dynamics of a small-scale (2 ft) towed system using a quadcopter and actively controlled payload. A towed system includes a main driver to propel the system forward connected to a payload via a tether. The towed system here is unique, and in that the driver is a scratch built quadcopter while the payload is also a scratch built actively controlled aircraft. The payload is designed to carry a small instrument that must be sufficiently far away from all interferences created by a quadcopter. A fully non-linear full state model is created and utilized to reveal that oscillations in the payload are decreased with the introduction of a PD controller on the payload. An experimental setup is built to validate simulation results. Experiments show that an actively controlled payload can decrease the attitude oscillations of the payload.

中文翻译：

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无人拖曳系统仿真与实验结果

本报告调查了使用四轴飞行器和主动控制有效载荷的小规模（2 英尺）拖曳系统的飞行动力学。拖曳系统包括一个主驱动器，用于推动系统向前，通过系绳连接到有效载荷。这里的拖曳系统是独一无二的，因为驾驶员是一个临时制造的四轴飞行器，而有效载荷也是一个临时制造的主动控制飞机。有效载荷设计用于携带小型仪器，该仪器必须远离四轴飞行器产生的所有干扰。创建并利用一个完全非线性的全状态模型来揭示有效载荷中的振荡随着在有效载荷上引入 PD 控制器而减少。建立了一个实验装置来验证模拟结果。