Vibration Suppression Control of Small-size Helicopter Slung Load System

Abstract

This paper describes a simple vibration suppression control method for a small-size helicopter with slung load system. The vibration suppression control for slung load is essential to improve stability of the flight because the weight of a helicopter is relatively light. The subject is analyzed by using the model which is a couple of rigid bodies containing a helicopter and a slung load in general, and controlled by state feedback combined with some sort of estimator. It requires accurate model and system parameters. However it is difficult for general users to build an appropriate model and to identify system parameters in terms of small-size helicopters. In this work we develop a simple control method which superposes vibration control of slung load on postural control of helicopter. By using delayed feedback, we can suppress the vibration easily in hovering situation. Furthermore, we will demonstrate a technique designing control parameters and verify the effectiveness by experiments.