Robust control for longitudinal and lateral dynamics of small scale helicopter

The problem of stabilization of lateral and longitudinal position for hover flight mode of an unmanned autonomous helicopter (UAH) in a gusty environment is considered. The controller design is based on generic linear model which successfully describes the behavior of most small scale helicopters. A recursive (backstepping) design procedure is used to design the robust controller for longitudinal and lateral dynamics based on control Lyapunov approach. For comparison purposes we design another controller based on the linear quadratic regulator (LQR) criteria. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed controllers can effectively attenuate the gust effects and achieve rapid and accurate longitudinal and lateral position tracking when gusts occur.