Modelling and real-time control stabilization of a new VTOL aircraft with eight rotors

In this paper we present the dynamic model and the stabilisation of an original configuration of an small helicopter having eight rotors. This configuration is not yet presented in the literature and in our knowledge is also the first prototype of this kind of helicopters. The equations of motion for the VTOL aircraft are obtained using Euler-Lagrange approach. Due to the configuration of the aircraft the attitude dynamics are practically independent of the translational dynamics corresponding to the lateral displacements (x and y). A nonlinear control strategy based in the Lyapunov analysis is proposed to stabilize this aircraft at hover. The performance of the nonlinear control algorithm is illustrated with real-time experiments.