Survey on Flight Control Technology for Large-Scale Helicopter

Jinshuo Hu,Hongbin Gu

doi:10.1155/2017/5309403

Abstract

A literature review of flight control technology is presented for large-scale helicopter. Challenges of large-scale helicopter flight control system (FCS) design are illustrated. Following this, various flight control methodologies are described with respect to their engineering implementation and theoretical developments, whose advantages and disadvantages are also analyzed. Then, the challenging research issues on flight control technology are identified, and future directions are highlighted.

Highlights

Large-scale helicopter has its unique characteristics of maneuverability and low speed performance compared to fixed-wing aircraft, which significantly extends its application in both military and civil
The most currently used flight control system (FCS) is digital Fly-By-Wire (FBW) system, designed to improve handling qualities, alleviate failure transients, and reduce maintenance activities [1]. This technique has been adopted by JUH-60A [2], AH-64D [3], CH47B [4], RAH-66 [5], Bell-205 [6,7,8], NH-90 [9], and so forth
There are several researches applied linear parameter varying (LPV) control method to fixed-wing aircraft [86,87,88,89,90,91], and few investigations are conducted on rotorcrafts [92, 93] because of the following reasons: (1) the nonlinear helicopter model is not affine in control inputs because of the mainrotor dynamics; (2) the rapid variation of flight parameters requires fast transient response, which provides rigorous constraints for controller synthesis; (3) the selection of effective scheduling variables is challenging, since inner dynamics, such as inflow dynamics and blade flapping dynamics, have to be considered

Summary

Introduction

Large-scale helicopter has its unique characteristics of maneuverability and low speed performance compared to fixed-wing aircraft, which significantly extends its application in both military and civil. The most currently used FCS is digital Fly-By-Wire (FBW) system, designed to improve handling qualities, alleviate failure transients, and reduce maintenance activities [1]. This technique has been adopted by JUH-60A [2], AH-64D [3], CH47B [4], RAH-66 [5], Bell-205 [6,7,8], NH-90 [9], and so forth. The advances of flight control methodologies play a central role in helicopter FCS design on improving helicopter dynamic performance and handling qualities. A highly reliable flight control methodology considerably improves helicopters’ performance and stability for implementing their various properties safely and effectively, within the flight envelop.

Challenges of Large-Scale Helicopter FCS Design

Various Flight Control Methodologies for Large-Scale Helicopter

Conclusions