Pitch and Yaw Angular Motions (Rotations) Control of the 1-DOF and 2-DOF TRMS: A Survey

Abstract

For several decades, researchers’ attention has been directed to the need for air safety. This has been a trailing concern for the engineering community and in particular the control engineers, who, due to the complex nature of aeronautical systems have to creatively grapple with requirements for aircraft safety and comfortability, flexibility, precision, speed and efficiency based on data obtained from such systems. Motivated by the impact modern control systems and modern technologies have on the present aeronautical/aerospace industry, a survey is carried out. It focuses on the nonlinear underactuated couplings of the decoupled Single-Degree-of Freedom and coupled Two-Degree-of-Freedom motion control of the ubiquitous rotorcraft, Twin Rotor Multi-Input Multi-Output System (TRMS) test bed. As a proven benchmark, it is employed for exploring, testing and validating flight control and optimization schemes. It brings to fore the recent developments of control laws, strategies and methods. They are deployed for physical system modelling, stability behavior (exponential and asymptotic), numerical simulations and real-time implementations in modern aerodynamic plants-(systems and technologies). These technologies include helicopters, airplanes, spacecraft, Unmanned Aerial Surveillance Vehicles, as well as main-stream and broad-ranging Multiple-Input Multiple-Output systems with varying degrees of nonlinearities and complexities. Of utmost importance, the methods are first validated on the TRMS test bed using the real-world online sensors’ (optical shaft encoders) data.