Rapid Control Prototyping of a controller for a experimental helicopter set-up used in control engineering courses

This paper deals with the application of the Rapid Control Prototyping (RCP) approach used for the control of a experimental helicopter set-up. The set-up is used for practical exercises in control engineering courses. The plant to be controlled can be described as a nonlinear MIMO system and one of the challenges for the students is the design of a suitable control algorithm. Two algorithms are successfully designed and tested via the RCP-approach: State-feedback control of the linearized system and the Exact-Linearization Control, whereas the second one will be treated in this paper. After the control design, the control performance is investigated using “Software in the Loop” (SiL) simulations. In the final step, the two control algorithms are implemented via automatic code generation on a specific target hardware (32 bit microcontroller TC1775). The paper presents the possible field of application of the widely used RCP-methodology in the lab courses of control engineering lectures by means of a specific application.