Nonlinear tracking control for a helicopter laboratory experiment

This contribution is devoted to the nonlinear tracking control problem of the laboratory experiment helicopter 3DOF distributed by Quanser. The laboratory experiment belongs to the class of mechanical systems with three degrees-of-freedom and two control inputs. It is well known that the systematic design of nonlinear controllers for underactuated mechanical systems is a challenge compared to fully actuated systems. On certain simplifying assumptions, which very well apply to the operating range of practical interest, we can show that the mathematical model is configuration flat. Thereby, a mechanical system is said to be configuration flat if it is differential flat and the flat outputs solely depend on the generalized coordinates of the mechanical system. The controller design is based on a formulation of the mechanical system on a Riemannian manifold where the kinetic energy serves as a natural Riemannian metric. In a first step a nonlinear tracking controller including an integral part in the linear error system is designed by means of a quasi-static state feedback. In a second step the design of the tracking controller is based on the theory of exact linearization utilizing the so-called dynamic extension algorithm. The experimental results of both controllers are compared and discussed in detail. In particular, the quasi-static state feedback controller shows an excellent tracking behavior. The performance as being obtained by the nonlinear controller cannot be achieved by conventional linear control strategies.