Control system design and testing for a small‐scale autonomous helicopter

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to conduct the design, development and testing of a controller for an autonomous small‐scale helicopter.

Design/methodology/approach

The hardware in the loop simulation (HILS) platform is developed based on the nonlinear model of JR Voyager G‐260 small‐scale helicopter. Autonomous controllers are verified using the HILS environment prior to flight experiments.

Findings

The gains of the multi‐loop cascaded control architecture can be effectively optimized within the HILS environment. Various autonomous flight operations are achieved and it is demonstrated that the prediction from the simulations is in a good agreement with the result from the flight test.

Research limitations/implications

The synthesized controller is effective for the particular test‐bed. For other small‐scale helicopters (with different size and engine specifications), the controller gains must be tuned again.

Practical implications

This work represents a practical control design and testing procedures for an autonomous small‐scale helicopter flight control. The autonomous helicopter can be used for various missions ranging from film making, agriculture and volcanic surveillance to power line inspection.

Originality/value

The research addresses the need for systematic design, development and testing of controller for a small‐scale autonomous helicopter by utilizing HILS environment.

Citation

Kim, S., Budiyono, A., Lee, J., Kim, D. and Joon Yoon, K. (2010), "Control system design and testing for a small‐scale autonomous helicopter", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 82 No. 6, pp. 353-359. https://doi.org/10.1108/00022661011104501