Model Predictive Control for a Small Scale Unmanned Helicopter

Abstract

Kinematical and dynamical equations of a small scale unmanned helicoper are presented in the paper. Based on these equations a model predictive control (MPC) method is proposed for controlling the helicopter. This novel method allows the direct accounting for the existing time delays which are used to model the dynamics of actuators and aerodynamics of the main rotor. Also the limits of the actuators are taken into the considerations during the controller design. The proposed control algorithm was verified in real flight experiments where good perfomance was shown in postion control mode.