In:
Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Emerald, Vol. 82, No. 6 ( 2010-10-19), p. 353-359
Abstract:
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.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0002-2667
DOI:
10.1108/00022661011104501
Language:
English
Publisher:
Emerald
Publication Date:
2010
detail.hit.zdb_id:
241346-2
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