An attitude modeling method for small-scale unmanned helicopter

Attitude control is crucial for small-scale unmanned helicopter autonomous flight, and attitude model is the basis for attitude control. This paper presents an attitude modeling method for small-scale unmanned helicopter. First-principle approach is applied to analyze and construct the structural attitude model with consideration of the coupling effects between different channels. The PEM parameter estimation approach is adopted to identify the parameters of the model. Verification experiments are carried out to validate the model. The validation results show that the modeling method is effective and has high accuracy. The modeling method takes the coupling effects between yaw channel and other channels into account and combines the first-principle approach and the system identification approach.