Hovering stability of a model helicopter
Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology
ISSN: 0002-2667
Article publication date: 3 October 2016
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the stability of a small scale six-degree-of-freedom nonlinear helicopter model at translator velocities and angular displacements while it is transiting to hover with different initial conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, model predictive controller and linear quadratic regulator are designed and compared within each other for the stabilization of the open loop unstable nonlinear helicopter model.
Findings
This study shows that the helicopter is able to reach to the desired target with good robustness, low control effort and small steady-state error under disturbances such as parameter uncertainties, mistuned controller.
Originality/value
The purpose of using model predictive control for three axes of the autopilot is to decrease the control effort and to make the close-loop system insensitive against modeling uncertainties.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Mr Turgay Eray for fruitful discussions. The corresponding author, Dr Ilker Murat Koc, was working as a Visiting Academic in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London, during the completion of the research. This work is partially supported by 2,219 – International Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK).
Citation
Murat Koc, I., Franko, S. and Ozsoy, C. (2016), "Hovering stability of a model helicopter", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 88 No. 6, pp. 810-817. https://doi.org/10.1108/AEAT-01-2015-0004
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited