Autonomous Helicopter Control Using Gradient Descent Optimization Method

The work reported in this paper is aimed at designing a velocity/altitude and position controllers for the unmanned helicopter APID MK-III by Scandicraft AB in Sweden. The controllers are able of regulating high velocities via stabilization of the attitude angles within much larger ranges than currently available. We use a novel approach to the design consisting of two steps: rst, a gradient descent optimization method is used to compute for each desired horizontal velocity/altitude or position the corresponding desired values for the attitude angles and the main rotor collective pitch; second, a linear control scheme is used to regulate the attitude angles so that the helicopter achieves its desired horizontal velocity at the desired altitude, or its desired position. The performance of the controllers is evaluated in simulation and shows that the proposed design method achieves its intended purpose. Accepted for presentation at the 4th Asian Conference on Robotics and its Applications (ACRA 2001), 6{8 June, 2001, Singapore