TP model transformation based stabilization of a 3-DOF RC helicopter

This paper investigates the effectiveness of a recently proposed numerical control design methodology in the stabilization control design of a 3-DOF RC helicopter. This control methodology is the combination of the TP (tensor product) model transformation and the PDC (parallel distributed compensation) framework. First we recall the nonlinear model of the RC helicopter, then we execute the TP model transformation on the simplified model to yield its TP model (or Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model) representation, with specific characteristic, whereupon the PDC framework can immediately be applied. Beyond the stabilization we take into account practical performance considerations in terms of good speed of response and small control effort to avoid actuator saturations. Simulation results are included to validate the control design. It is pointed out that the resulting controller is equivalent with the one successfully applied in the real control experiment of the helicopter presented in a recent paper.