| Abstract.;Micro Coaxial Helicopter Controller Design.;Zelimir Husnic.;Advisor: Professor Bor-Chin Chang, Ph.D.;One of the advantages of the micro coaxial helicopter is in its maneuverability. It can perform some flight maneuvers that a fixed-wing aircraft cannot do - like hovering, perching, vertical take-off and landing, flying backwards, or moving sideways to the left or to the right. It is also more agile than the conventional helicopter with a counter-gyro effect rotor at the tail of the fuselage. However, due to its small size and sensitivity to disturbances, the micro coaxial helicopter is more challenging to control than a full-scale helicopter.;In this work, the flight dynamics of the micro coaxial helicopter were investigated and a simplified model for the autonomous flight control system design was constructed. System identification techniques as used in full-scale helicopters have been successfully applied to the micro coaxial unmanned helicopter. The essential parts of system identification include model theory, experimental data acquisition, parameter estimation, and model validations. The multivariable tracking and H2 control theory were employed to design a flight control system that would provide desired stability and performance for autonomous flight of a variety of maneuvers mentioned above.;With a well-designed autonomous flight control system, the micro coaxial helicopter can be deployed for battle field awareness in battle fields, surveillance for search and rescue, border patrol, counter-terrorism operations, etc. |
