Robust and Intelligent Control Techniques for Twin Rotor System

Abstract

During recent decades, popularity of unmanned aerial vehicles has increased throughout academics, engineers, as well as students because of their wide range of application areas such as inspection, communication, and transportation. The twin rotor system represents the nonlinear and coupled dynamics of a helicopter to a certain extent. Therefore, it provides a good test bed for engineering students' education on dynamics of aerial vehicles and control of mechatronic systems. In this study, sliding mode and fuzzy logic controllers are designed to control hovering motion of this highly nonlinear system. A robust sliding mode controller is preferred since it is insensitive to external disturbances, and intelligent fuzzy logic control is preferred since it is applicable to nonlinear systems where exact model of the system is not needed. Designed controllers, which are robust and intelligent, are then applied to the twin rotor system in real time. Then, experimental results are presented and discussed in terms of control performances of the designed controllers in detail.