Helicopter Control System Research Articles

An investigation into the stability of helicopter control system under the influence of time delay using an improved LKF

This paper presents an improved Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional (LKF)-based stability analysis of time-delay systems (TDS) and its application to helicopter control systems. A novel LKF is proposed for the stability analysis of linear TDS after thoroughly examining the effects of each integral associated with a general class of LKF. The suggested stability results in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) are obtained using the Wirtinger-based integral inequality (WII), reciprocally convex combination lemma (RCCL), and extended reciprocally convex matrix inequality (ERCMI). Numerical examples are utilized to evaluate the impact of the presented theorems on stability. The proposed theorems are then used to examine the stability of helicopter control systems, and the results of these stability analyses are verified using a laboratory model of a helicopter control system.

Feasibility and Effectiveness of a Higher Harmonic Control System for a Medium Utility Helicopter

Feasibility and Effectiveness of a Higher Harmonic Control System for a Medium Utility Helicopter

Adaptive sliding mode attitude control of 2-degrees-of-freedom helicopter system with actuator saturation and disturbances

The modelling uncertainties, external disturbance and actuator saturation issues will degrade the performance and even the safety of flight. To improve control performance, this study proposes an adaptive U-model based double sliding control (UDSMC) algorithm combined with a radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) for a nonlinear two-degrees-of-freedom (2-DOF) helicopter system. Firstly, the adaptive RBFNN is designed to approximate the system dynamics with unknown uncertainties. Furthermore, two adaptive laws are designed to deal with unknown external disturbances and actuator saturation errors. The global stability of the proposed helicopter control system is rigorously guaranteed by the Lyapunov stability analysis, realizing precise attitude tracking control. Finally, the comparative experiments with conventional SMC and adaptive SMC algorithms conducted on the Quanser Aero2 platform demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed 2-DOF helicopter control algorithm.

ANALISIS KINEMATIK MANUVER TERBANG VERTIKAL PADA KOMPONEN SWASH PLATE, ROTOR HEAD DAN ROTOR BLADES HELIKOPTER SEJENIS NBO - 105 MENGGUNAKAN CATIA V5R16

Helicopters have a unique advantage over airplanes in that they can adjust the direction of their blades to generate lift in any direction, allowing them to perform vertical takeoffs and landings and hover in one spot. This capability makes them highly valuable for a variety of operations, including transportation. A crucial component in the helicopter control system is the swash plate, which allows for adjustments to the angle of the rotor blades to achieve specific maneuvers.To manufacture and model components such as the swash plate, rotor head, and rotor blades, CATIA V5R16 software can be used. This involves modeling the individual parts in the workbench part design, assembling them in the workbench assembly design, or conducting kinematic analysis using the DMU Kinematics workbench to obtain values for linear velocity, angular velocity, linear acceleration, and angular acceleration. When compared to manual calculations, the differences between the results produced by the CATIA V5R16 software and theoretical calculations are negligible. Therefore, it can be concluded that CATIA V5R16 software is highly capable and suitable for conducting kinematic analysis of three-dimensional components.

An Intelligence Attitude Controller Based on Active Disturbance Rejection Control Technology for an Unmanned Helicopter

To solve the problems of complex parameter tuning of traditional active disturbance rejection controller (ADRC) and low adaptive ability of extended state observer, this paper designs a novel intelligent attitude controller based on active disturbance rejection control technology. The adaptive radial basis function neural network can improve the adaptability of the extended state observer, and the fuzzy control can adjust the parameters of the state error nonlinear control law online. The intelligent ADRC controller can eliminate the influence of internal and external disturbances on the unmanned helicopter, and reduce the difficulty of controller parameter tuning. Based on the intelligent ADRC controller, this paper designs an intelligent attitude control system for a small unmanned helicopter and completes the attitude control test. The corresponding test results demonstrate that the intelligent attitude controller has excellent anti-disturbances, robustness and tracking ability, and the control effect is better than that of the traditional ADRC controller.

Control system of the autonomous underwater helicopter for pipeline inspection

For decades, in order to fully transport energy and rationally redistribute resources, humans have laid a large number of underwater pipelines in rivers, lakes and oceans to transport resources. However, due to corrosion, load, natural vibration, and crustal movement, underwater pipelines will undergo fatigue fracture, causing resource leakage, environmental pollution and economic losses. In recent years, the problem of maintenance of underwater pipelines has become one of the most difficult problems that need to be solved. And the internal inspection of the pipeline is the key problem. In this paper, we successfully realize this through algorithm and experiments. Here we show a circular dish-shaped underwater helicopter (AUH) that used to realize the depth-fixed line tracking control in the underwater pipeline. This work proposed a priority control system which combines depth control and line tracking control well and an underwater image processing algorithm flow to identify the line well.

Configuration system design and longitudinal flight simulation verification of variable stability helicopter

For in-flight simulation of variable stability helicopter, how to have the ability to change a wide range of response characteristics and ensure flight safety is an important design problem. This paper proposes configuration design technology of the variable stability helicopter, which purpose is to safely change steady-state and dynamic response characteristics of the variable stability helicopter, and make the pilot feel good or poor helicopter response characteristics. The configuration control system of the variable stability helicopter is designed theoretically, and the configuration switch logic is studied from the perspective of flight safety. The numerical simulation test of the longitudinal configuration control law was carried out, and the configuration control law and configuration switch logic were added to the ground closed-loop test to verify. The results show that the expected response characteristics of the helicopter are obtained by applying the configuration system design technology.

Testing the cooling system of the helicopter internal combustion engine in hot climates

The article discusses the need to solve the problem of increasing the temperature limits of the operation of the cooling system of the internal combustion engine (ICE) of the helicopter. This issue arose from the fact that during the operation of the helicopter on the territory of African countries with a hot climate, the engine overheated. The use of helicopters in these conditions was due to the demand in the aviation market. To solve the problem, new elements of the cooling system were selected, i.e. radiator and two types of fans. The research was aimed at increasing the heat transfer from the radiators of the cooling system by increasing the size of the radiator and increasing the air flow rate through the radiator. 3D modeling, design of a new cooling system (CO), and then design of CO in two versions with TEMIC and SPAL fans were done. First, ground and flight tests for two prototypes in a temperate climate were done, as a result of which a prototype with the best performance parameters was determined. During the tests the equipment and measuring instruments were used: voltmeter, ammeter, voltmeter; shunt; motor tester with the ability to transfer data via Bluetooth; smartphone with OpenDiag software installed, which is included and connected to the motor tester via Bluetooth, helicopter objective control system, flight data registration system, equipment and devices normally installed on the helicopter. For flight tests in hot climates, a new cooling system with a SPAL fan was used, these tests lasted three days. This article describes the final stage of a series of tests for the effectiveness of the cooling system of a helicopter and an analysis of the results obtained with confirmation of the final achievement of the set goals, i.e. raising the upper temperature limit of the outside air for the safe operation of the helicopter.

Research on the Control System of the Micro-navigation Mechanism of the Vector-Propelled Aircraft Model Helicopter Based on Computer Control

This article briefly describes the computer control system of the RC helicopter vector propulsion engine, and analyzes the hydraulic control system and the electronic control system of the model helicopter propulsion engine control system in detail. It also outlines the specific functions and technical requirements of the digital control system for the vector propulsion engine of the RC helicopter. The research shows that the vector propulsion engine control system of the Chinese model helicopter should be developed and applied to the vector propulsion engine controller system, laying the foundation for the development of the vector propulsion engine control system of the Chinese model helicopter.

Active fault-tolerant control system for a swash mass helicopter using back-stepping approach

In this article, an active fault-tolerant control system is designed and analyzed for a new model structure of unmanned aerial vehicles, which is referred to a swash mass helicopter. It consists of a double-blade coaxial shaft rotor for generating the necessary thrust and four masses that are located on the main body structure to maneuver the helicopter. The translational and rotational subsystems of the helicopter are highly coupled. Therefore, change of coordinate and feedback linearization methodologies are applied to address the problem and achieve the canonical form of the model. Next, actuator fault as a loss of effectiveness and bias faults are modeled for the dynamic. The main contribution of this article is to design an active fault-tolerant control system based on back-stepping and T-S fuzzy estimation methods for the swash mass helicopter which has never been designed in the last decades. T-S fuzzy methodology is responsible for obtaining the estimated value of the actuator faults during the flight. The Lyapunov theory illustrates that the proposed control strategy can stabilize the system despite the actuator’s fault. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme compared with another method.

Modeling and Experimental Verification of a Semi-rotary Fluid Damper Based on an Improved Kelvin Model

The semi-rotary fluid damper is a shock-absorbing device that is widely used for the protections of various mechanical structures. In this research, a new small semi-rotary fluid damper for vibration reduction of helicopter control system is introduced. The damping medium used in the damper is hydraulic oil with a high shear thinning rate, which has a high degree of nonlinear hysteresis and viscoelastic properties. The accuracy of the mechanical model of the damper is of great significance to the design of control strategies for effective vibration reduction. Based on the adaptive genetic algorithm, the parameter identification of the semi-rotary fluid damper is studied with the objective function of minimizing the square of the difference between the analytical force and the experimental force. The Kelvin and generalized Kelvin with friction models lack parameters to properly describe the frequency and amplitude dependence. Therefore, an improved Kelvin model which is based on generalized Kelvin is proposed to capture the nonlinear dynamic characteristics of the damper. Through error analysis, it is concluded that the improved Kelvin model can more accurately describe the nonlinear damping characteristics of the semi-rotary fluid damper subjected to different amplitudes and frequencies.

Adaptive Learning-Based Observer With Dynamic Inversion for the Autonomous Flight of an Unmanned Helicopter

This article presents the development of an autonomous flight control system for a small-scale unmanned helicopter based on an online adaptive learning-based observer and model predictive control (MPC). The adaptive learning-based observer provides an approximate dynamic inversion for solving the coupled dynamic problem. The discrete-time MPC (DMPC) uses a prediction process to obtain a stable model. The Laguerre function, a state observer, and a recursive learning algorithm were integrated into DMPC, the core of the flight control system. Exponential data weighting was adopted to increase the stability of the designed flight control system. By integrating these approaches, an adaptive learning-based flight control system, which consists of the pitch, roll, yaw, and heave controllers, is presented to evaluate the stability and performance of the proposed autonomous flight control system of an unmanned helicopter. Moreover, an adaptive controller based on neural approximation for yaw motion is used to improve the performance of yawing control of the helicopter. In order to validate the feasibility of the proposed method, a hardware-in-the-loop simulation was performed in real time. The system included an embedded system, a self-developed users interface, and the X-plane flight simulator. The simulation results showed that the flight control system was able to maintain the position and the attitude of the helicopter in hover mode under the influence of wind gust and disturbance. The proposed method had better performance than a robust control system, in both ideal and disturbed environments.

Trajectory Tracking Active Disturbance Rejection Control of the Unmanned Helicopter and Its Parameters Tuning

To solve the problem that the trajectory tracking control system of the unmanned helicopter is limited by the accuracy of the physical model (parameters and dynamic characteristics) and external disturbance of the unmanned helicopter, this paper designs a trajectory tracking control system of the unmanned helicopter based on the linear/nonlinear hybrid Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC). At the same time, this paper proposes a method for tuning the controller parameters based on the Bacterial Foraging Optimization-Flower Pollination Algorithm (BFO-FPA). Finally, the simulation test of spiral climb and “8”-figure climb is applied to verify the controller’s performance. The results show that the controller proposed in this paper can effectively overcome the influence of the unmanned helicopter’s internal and external disturbance, and the controller has the advantages of strong anti- disturbance ability and strong robustness. Simultaneously, the optimization algorithm can obtain the optimal global solution, and can improve the controller’s performance.

Task Parameters Analysis in Schedule-Based Timing Side-Channel Attack

Recent work has shown that the timing behavior of a real-time system can be utilized by attackers for various adverse purposes via schedule-based timing side-channel attacks. An important assumption in this type of attacks is the prior knowledge of attackers about the task parameter information, including the number of tasks in the system and the period and execution time of each task. The attackers can use such information, together with the execution sequence of the task system, to reconstruct the exact schedule of the tasks and perform various subsequent attacks. In this paper, we show that the schedule-based timing side channel attacks can actually be performed even without knowing the task parameter information in prior. We develop methods to infer the number of tasks in the system and the period and execution time of each task directly from the execution sequence. This removes the task parameter prior knowledge requirement of the attackers and shows greater threats of the schedule-based timing side channel attacks. Both simulation experiments with synthetic task sets and a Zedboard-based evaluation with control system for a 3DOF helicopter are conducted to evaluate the proposed task parameter analysis method.

System identification and robust attitude control of an unmanned helicopter using novel low-cost flight control system

In recent years, unmanned aerial systems have attracted great attention due to the electronic systems technology advancements. Among these vehicles, unmanned helicopters are more important because of their special abilities and superior performance. The complex nonlinear dynamic system (caused by main rotor flapping dynamics coupled with the rigid body rotational motion) and considerable effects of ambient disturbance make their utilization hard in actual missions. Attitude dynamics have the main role in helicopter stabilization, so implementing proper control system for attitude is an important issue for unmanned helicopter hovering and trajectory tracking performance. Besides this, experimental utilization of low-cost flight control system for unmanned helicopters is still a challenging task. In this article, dynamic modeling, system identification, and robust control system implementation of roll and pitch dynamics of an unmanned helicopter is performed. A TRex-600E radio-controlled helicopter is equipped with a novel low-cost flight control system designed and constructed based on Raspberry Pi Linux-based microcomputer. Using Raspberry Pi makes this platform simpler to utilize and more time and cost-effective than similar platforms used before. The experiments are performed on a 5-degree-of-freedom testbed. The robust control system is designed based on [Formula: see text] method and is evaluated in real flight tests. The experiment results show that the proposed platform has the ability to successfully control the roll and pitch dynamics of the unmanned helicopter.

Research on unmanned aerial vehicle modeling and control based on intelligent algorithms

This article designs an automatic flight control system for an unmanned aerial vehicle helicopter. The differential evolution intelligent algorithm is used for a state-space model identification; the differential evolution method has an advantage of choosing initial point randomly. The accuracy of the identified model is verified by comparing the model-predicted responses with the responses collected during flight experiments. The reliability and efficiency of the differential evolution algorithm are demonstrated by the experimental results. A robust controller is designed based on the identified model for the unmanned aerial vehicle helicopter with two-loop control frame: the outer-loop is used to obtain the expected attitude angles through reference path and speed with guidance-based path-following control, and the inner-loop is used to control the attitude angles of helicopter tracking the expected ones with [Formula: see text] loop-shaping method. The greatest common right divisor method is used to choose the weighting matrix in loop shaping, in which the stability margin is larger and has a greater bandwidth of the unmanned aerial vehicle system. Finally, a space spiral curve trajectory tracking simulation is conducted to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed control systems, and the simulation results prove that the unmanned helicopter system achieves a top-level control performance.

Finite-time control for small-scale unmanned helicopter with disturbances

This work aims to develop finite-time stability property for trajectory tracking control system of small-scale unmanned helicopter subjected to uncertainties and external disturbances. The added power integrator method is applied to construct the nominal feedback control part, such that helicopters’ closed-loop system possesses highly tracking performance due to finite-time convergence property. In view of the existence of strong couplings, approximate feedback linearization is initially conducted to simplify and decouple helicopters’ input–output dynamics. Additionally, to guarantee robustness, the composite active disturbance rejection control idea is employed. These unknown perturbations are estimated using high-order sliding mode disturbance observers and compensated for directly in every virtual control law. Finite-time convergence property of the closed-loop system with disturbances is proven through Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, several comparison simulations illustrate the effectiveness and superiority of our proposed methods.

Designing the Security Control System for Helicopter

It has been a study of interaction and automatic by-wire control systems, as well as external and internal influencing factors. It was shown the need for application in the complex aircraft control system safety management system. A feature of the proposed system is the use and realization in its structure algorithms, fuzzy logic and expert systems. The proposed approach makes it possible to create a system, adaptive to changing the aircraft flight conditions, increase the speed of reaction of the system upon the occurrence of adverse events. It was the mathematical model of computing the core safety management system of the helicopter, which allows to investigate the physical processes occurring in the system. This analysis was conducted by according to the conditions Hadamard correctness. Was offered a block diagram of the safety management system of the helicopter flight, the implementation of which is carried out on the basis of artificial intelligence. The article considers various aspects of the application of expert systems and fuzzy logic in control helicopter system. Special attention is given to the analysis of the interaction of the system with other complexes of control of the aircraft.

Active Control of a UAV Helicopter with a Slung Load for Precision Airborne Cargo Delivery

An active controller for a UAV helicopter carrying a slung load is described in this paper. The objective of the controller is to allow the UAV to safely transport a slung load and to place it precisely on a moving ground platform such as a moving truck or a ship. In order to fulfill this objective, an active slung load controller is synthesized that forms an outer loop in providing trajectory commands to an existing automatic flight control system (AFCS) of an unmanned helicopter. The synthesized controller consists of three sub-components; first a target position tracker which generates position tracking commands, second a load oscillation controller which generates load oscillation damping commands, and third an adaptive neural network which compensates for uncertainties associated with flight environment and/or modeling errors. A linear proportional-plus-derivative (PD) controller is used for the target position tracking control. A nonlinear controller based on feedback linearization of the slung load dynamics is used for the load oscillation control. A single hidden layer neural network with an adaptive gain update is used for uncertainty compensation. The proposed controller is evaluated in simulations within the Georgia Tech UAV Simulation Tool (GUST) and inflight tests using the GTMax UAV helicopter test-bed. Both simulation and flight test results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller in dampening of load oscillations while simultaneously reducing position errors relative to a virtual moving ground platform, in the presence of random ground vehicle motion, wind gusts, and modeling errors.

Hybrid controller design and simulation for a small-size autonomous helicopter

Purpose – During flight, a small-size autonomous helicopter will suffer external disturbance that is wind gust. Moreover, the small-size helicopter can carries limited payload or battery. Therefore control system of an autonomous helicopter should be able to eliminate external disturbance and optimize energy consumption. The purpose of this paper is to propose a hybrid controller structure to control a small-size autonomous helicopter capable to eliminate external disturbance and optimize energy consumption. The proposed control strategy comprise of two components, a linear component to stabilize the nominal linear system and a discontinuous component to guarantee the robustness. An integral control is included in the system to eliminate steady state error and tracking reference input. Design/methodology/approach – This research started with derived mathematic model of the small-size helicopter that will be controlled. Based on the obtained mathematic model, then design of a hybrid controller to control the autonomous helicopter. The hybrid controller was designed based on optimal controller and sliding mode controller. The optimal controller as main controller is used to stabilize the nominal linear system and a discontinuous component based on sliding mode controller to guarantee the robustness. Findings – Performance of the proposed controller was tested in simulation. The hybrid controller performance was compared with optimal controller performance. The hybrid controller has better performance compared with optimal controller. Results of the simulation shows that the proposed controller has good performance and robust against external disturbances. The proposed controller has better performance in rise time, settling time and overshoot compared with optimal controller response both for step input response and tracking capability. Originality/value – Hybrid controller to control small-size helicopter has not reported yet. In this research new hybrid controller structure for a small size autonomous helicopter was proposed.