Path following controller design for miniature unmanned helicopters

This paper presents a design of path following controller for miniature unmanned helicopters which is easily realized in practice. The controller is implemented using two-time-scale separation architecture, and thus composed of an outer-loop for path following and an inner-loop for attitude control. This paper specifically focuses on the path following design in outer-loop controller. In view of the characteristics of the helicopter's manoeuvring response and stability requirement of the path following controller, the outer-loop using offset-distance and expected velocity to design the path following controller expressed by attitude angle, and then proves asymptotic stability of closed-loop system. Finally, a six degrees of freedom linear identification-based dynamical model is presented in this paper, and simulation study shows the performance of the controller.