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An unmanned helicopter control with partial small body force compensation: Experimental results

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2018

Bryan Godbolt  and
Alan F. Lynch Open the ORCID record for Alan F. Lynch [Opens in a new window]
Bryan Godbolt
Affiliation:
QinetiQ Target Systems, Medicine Hat, AB, Canada. E-mail: bryan.godbolt@qinetiq.ca
Alan F. Lynch*
Affiliation:
QinetiQ Target Systems, Medicine Hat, AB, Canada. E-mail: bryan.godbolt@qinetiq.ca
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: alan.lynch@ualberta.ca
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Summary

A generally accepted helicopter model used for control includes the effect of Small Body Forces (SBF) which couple the vehicle's rotational subsystem inputs to its translational dynamics. SBF result from tail rotor thrust and lateral forces due to main rotor flapping. It is well-known that SBF lead to a theoretically challenging stabilization problem for the tracking error dynamics. Hence, much of the existing work has neglected SBF in order to simplify control design. We design a controller that directly compensates the influence of the tail rotor component of the SBF. The design is validated in simulation and flight tests.

Keywords

Aerial RoboticsControl of Robotic SystemsRobot DynamicsMechatronic SystemsAutomation
Type
Articles
Information
Robotica , Volume 36 , Issue 10 , October 2018 , pp. 1436 - 1453
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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