A Multivariable Adaptive Control Design with Applications to Autonomous Helicopters

Control of autonomous helicopters in the presence of environmental and system uncertainties is a challenging task. These uncertainties not only change the dynamics of the system but the trim inputs themselves. In this paper, a viable multivariable adaptive control methodology is proposed that is applicable for general maneuvers with arbitrary speeds and high bandwidth requirements. The control design methodology achieves global stability, and is tested on a high fidelity simulation of a real life autonomous helicopter. The results indicate a satisfactory tracking performance even as the speeds and bandwidth requirements are increased well beyond hover, and as the parametric uncertainties were increased by about 20% of their nominal values.