Hierarchical control of small autonomous helicopters

Abstract

Autonomous air vehicles have numerous applications, all of which require the vehicle to have stable and accurate control of its motion. In the paper, a hierarchical control system for small autonomous helicopters is described. The control system consists of four components: a navigation filter, an inner-loop hover control system, a waypoint guidance system, and a ground-based flight manager. All four elements of the control system have been verified with flight tests of the Draper small autonomous air vehicle.