Sliding mode control for the hovering of helicopter by using quaternion dynamics

In this paper, we present a sliding mode control for the radio controlled helicopter based on quaternion dynamics. We also introduce the kinematics of the rotating object based on quaternion and then propose a robust sliding mode control algorithm which can guarantee the over all stability of the whole system. We will show the simulation results by using the matlab simulink software tool and then implement the computer animation by using OpenGL based on the data of the simulation results. We use the simple dynamics of the helicopter which we derived in previous research work under the assumption that it can be modeled as rigid body composed of three main parts, such as main body, main rotor, and tail rotor. From the computer simulation, we can check the validness of proposed control law.