Linear Parameter Varying Model Identification for Control of Rotorcraft-based UAV

Abstract: A rotorcraft-based unmanned aerial vehicle exhibits more complex properties compared to its full-size counterparts due to its increased sensitivity to control inputs and disturbances and higher bandwidth of its dynamics. As an aerial vehicle with vertical take-off and landing capability, the helicopter specifically poses a difficult problem of transition between forward flight and unstable hover and vice versa. The LPV control technique explicitly takes into account the change in performance due to the real-time parameter variations. The technique therefore theoretically guarantees the performance and robustness over the entire operating envelope. In this study, we investigate a new approach implementing model identification for use in the LPV control framework. The identification scheme employs recursive least square technique implemented on the LPV system represented by dynamics of helicopter during a transition. The airspeed as the scheduling of parameter trajectory is not assumed to vary slowly. The exclusion of slow parameter change requirement allows for the application of the algorithm for aggressive maneuvering capability without the need of expensive computation. The technique is tested numerically and will be validated in the autonomous flight of a small scale helicopter.