Abstract
Helicopters are well-known by their hovering capabilities. However, the performance of this valuable feature can be seriously affected by external disturbances such as wind effects. The latter could be even more significant when dealing with small-size helicopters, which are commonly adopted as base platforms for developing unmanned aerial vehicles. Motivated by this context, this work proposes an augmented configuration for performing more stable hovering maneuvers that consists of the unmanned helicopter itself, a tether connecting the helicopter to the ground, and a device on ground adjusting the tether tension. A modeling analysis on the inherent benefits to the proposed configuration as well as the control guidelines to exploit such potentialities are presented in this paper. As a proof a concept, a first basic implementation of the control structure for the entire system is also included. Finally, several demonstrating simulations under artificially generated wind influences are presented to endorse the validity of the proposed approach.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahmed, B., Pota, H.: Backstepping-based landing control of a RUAV using tether incorporating flapping correction dynamics. Proc. Am. Control Conf. 2728–2733 (2008)
Bendotti, P., Morris, J.: Robust hover control for a model helicopter. Proc. Am. Control Conf. 1, 682–687 (1995)
Bernard, M., Kondak, K.: Generic slung load transportation system using small size helicopters. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 3258–3264 (2009)
Bernard, M., Kondak, K., Maza, I., Ollero, A.: Autonomous transportation and deployment with aerial robots for search and rescue missions. J. Field Robot. 28(6), 914–931 (2011)
Kane, T.R., Levinson, D.A.: Dynamics Theory and Applications. McGraw-Hill, New York (1985)
Kane, T.R., Likins, P.W., Levinson, D.A.: Spacecraft Dynamics. McGraw-Hill, New York (1983)
Kondak, K., Bernard, M., Losse, N., Hommel, G.: Elaborated modeling and control for autonomous small size helicopters. VDI-Ber 1956, 207–216 (2006)
Motiongenesis Kane 5.x.: Forces, motion and code-generation software. http://www.motiongenesis.com/ (2012). Accessed Jun 2012
Ogata, K.: Discrete-Time Control Systems. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (1995)
Oh, S., Pathak, K., Agrawal, S.K., Pota, H.R., Garratt, M.: Approaches for a tether-guided landing of an autonomous helicopter. IEEE T. Robot. 22(3), 536–544 (2006)
Pradana, W., Joelianto, E., Budiyono, A., Adiprawita, W.: Robust MIMO H ∞ integral-backstepping PID controller for hovering control of unmanned model helicopter. J. Aerosp. Eng. 24(4), 454–462 (2011)
Rye, D.: Longitudinal stab4ility of a hovering, tethered rotorcraft. J. Guid. Control Dyn. 8(6), 743–752 (1985)
Sandino, L., Bejar, M., Ollero, A.: On the applicability of linear control techniques for autonomous landing of helicopters on the deck of a ship. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics, pp. 363–368 (2011)
Sandino, L., Bejar, M., Ollero, A.: Tutorial for the application of Kane’s method to model a small-size helicopter. In: Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Research, Development and Education on Unmanned Aerial Systems, pp. 162–173 (2011)
Schmidt, G., Swik, R.: Automatic hover control of an unmanned tethered rotorplatform. Automatica 10(4), 393–403 (1974)
Tijani, I., Akmeliawati, R., Legowo, A., Budiyono, A., Muthalif, A.: H ∞ robust controller for autonomous helicopter hovering control. Aircr. Eng. Aerosp. Tech. 83(6), 363–374 (2011)
Weilenmann, M., Christen, U., Geering, H.: Robust helicopter position control at hover. Proc. Am. Control Conf. 3, 2491–2495 (1994)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic Supplementary Material
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sandino, L.A., Bejar, M., Kondak, K. et al. On the Use of Tethered Configurations for Augmenting Hovering Stability in Small-size Autonomous Helicopters. J Intell Robot Syst 70, 509–525 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-012-9741-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-012-9741-2