Trajectory Control of Miniature Helicopters Using a Unified Nonlinear Optimal Control Technique

    Authors

    M. Xin; Y. J. Xu;R. Hopkins

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Dyn. Syst. Meas. Control-Trans. ASME

    Keywords

    AUTONOMOUS HELICOPTERS; DESIGN; GUIDANCE; MODEL; Automation & Control Systems; Instruments & Instrumentation

    Abstract

    It is always a challenge to design a real-time optimal full flight envelope controller for a miniature helicopter due to the nonlinear, underactuated, uncertain, and highly coupled nature of its dynamics. This paper integrates the control of translational, rotational, and flapping motions of a simulated miniature aerobatic helicopter in one unified optimal control framework. In particular, a recently developed real-time nonlinear optimal control method, called the theta-D technique, is employed to solve the resultant challenging problem considering the full nonlinear dynamics without gain scheduling techniques and timescale separations. The uniqueness of the theta-D method is its ability to obtain an approximate analytical solution to the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, which leads to a closed-form suboptimal control law. As a result, it can provide a great advantage in real-time implementation without a high computational load. Two complex trajectory tracking scenarios are used to evaluate the control capabilities of the proposed method in full flight envelope. Realistic uncertainties in modeling parameters and the wind gust condition are included in the simulation for the purpose of demonstrating the robustness of the proposed control law. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4004060]

    Journal Title

    Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurement and Control-Transactions of the Asme

    Volume

    133

    Issue/Number

    6

    Publication Date

    1-1-2011

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    14

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000297475800001

    ISSN

    0022-0434

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