Adaptive height and attitude control of small-scale unmanned helicopter

In this paper, a novel adaptive height and attitude controller for a small-scale unmanned helicopter is proposed to deal with the parametric uncertainty. Firstly, the dynamic model is decoupled to two subsystems and transformed to linear parameter dependent style equivalently. Then, feedback linearization and back-stepping are used to design adaptive controller for height subsystem and attitude subsystem respectively. The flapping model of the main rotor is considered in order to improve the control performance. The stability of the closed-loop system is rigorously proved by Lyapunov stability theory. Numerical simulation results show that the controller can achieve well performance in the presence of parametric uncertainties.