ADAPTIVE BACKSTEPPING INTEGRAL CONTROL OF A SMALL-SCALE HELICOPTER FOR AIRDROP MISSIONS

This paper presents an adaptive Lyapunov-based controller with integral action for small-scale helicopters carrying out airdrop missions. The proposed controller is designed via adaptive backstepping. Unlike the approximate modeling approaches, where the coupling effect of the helicopter is neglected, the proposed method is developed according to a complete dynamic model such that the closed-loop helicopter system is guaranteed to be globally ultimately bounded. Two numerical simulations with airdrops are conducted to exemplify the merits of the proposed controller. Through simulation results, the proposed control method is shown to outperform the well-known controller in Mahony and Hamel, Int. J. Robust Nonlincor Control, Vol. 14, No. 12, pp. 1035-1059 (2004).