Model-Based Helicopter UAV Control: Experimental Results

Small helicopter dynamics are coupled, nonlinear, and underactuated. Therefore, helicopter control poses a challenging problem which is of wide interest due to possible applications. Although helicopter UAV control is an applied research field, there are relatively few experimental results. Previously published experimental results for attitude control are extended to include position control for time-varying reference trajectories. The translational control is derived in both the navigation and body-fixed frames, and the resulting expressions are shown to be locally equivalent. Closed-loop stability is shown using a Lyapunov analysis and conditions for asymptotic stability on the gains are derived.