Design of Robust Controllers for a Rotary Wing Helicopter

Abstract

Due to inherent instability, parametric variations, changing properties during flight, and uncertainties in predicting aerodynamic coefficients, helicopter flight control requires strategies with enough robustness to cope with these uncertainties. The control laws developed in the last few decades are mostly of the PID type that does not take advantage of the helicopter full potential. In this thesis four different controller techniques have been explored for a small scaled single rotor joker 3 Helicopter. Uncertainties of system parameters have been injected in the Helicopter model and performance of each the controller has been evaluated. All controllers are tested in simulation. Hovering mode and robustness properties are verified within the range of inaccuracies expected to be encountered in real flight. The suggested controllers show excellent performance compared to classical controllers and can be good candidates for real flight test.