Design of helicopter autopilot

A small helicopter can be considered as a test bench of a highly nonlinear unstable multiconnected mechanical control system. An automatic stabilization system was designed on a standard computer for a small electrical helicopter. The sensor device consists of two Web cameras connected to the computer and four onboard diodes. The control signal is transmitted to actuators through a wireless control panel connected to the computer. Results of experiments are reported where the full autopilot system stabilizes a helicopter near a fixed 3-dimensional point that is not far from the ground. TV tracking is reproduced on the screen.