A Comprehensive Approach to Designing,

Implementing and Testing Controllers for

S ll Unmanned
Small
U
d Helicopters
H li
t

M. Castillo-Effen, C. L. Castillo, K. P. Valavanis, W. A. Moreno

2007 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent
g
Robots and Systems
y
San Diego, CA, USA
Friday, November 2, 2007

Overview

Introduction
Introd
ction to USL
USL, Vision
Challenges in autonomous VTOL control design
A
Approach
h
Theoretical Development
Hardware / Software Implementation
Conclusions

The Unmanned Systems Lab

Faculty/Staff

Dr. Kimon Valavanis

Dr
Dr. Wilfrido Moreno;
Dr. Miguel Labrador;
Dr. Pei-Sung Lin;
Dr. Nikos Tsourvelodis;
Dr. Alfredo Weitzenfeld.

Graduate Students: 13
Undergrad. Students: 4

Vision
Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap
Department of Defense 2005

Civil UAV Capability Assessment

NASA 2004

Gradual transition

Vision

Seeks to contribute to the UAV research community as a whole.

Perform applied research. Emphasis on applications.
Fill certain gaps
No open source / standard platform for control and research.
Isolated non-comparable
p
efforts in control methodologies.
g
PID, Intelligent control, State-dependent Ricatti Equations, Robust Control,
Nonlinear Control, etc.
What works better when, where?

How
H
tto cope with
ith payload
l d / endurance
d
constraints.
t i t
Recharging platform onboard of an autonomous ground vehicle

Sensor fusion
Integration of vision
Operation

Challenges

Open-loop unstable
E.g.: Hovering is open loop unstable

High
g degree
g
of coupling
p g
Control channels have high interdependence

Nonlinear behavior
Linearization works in small regions

Dynamics spanning wide range of frequencies

Fast dynamics
High sampling freq. and processing speed required

Obtaining accurate models amenable for control design

S
System
t
identification
id tifi ti procedures
d
are llengthy
th and
d specialized
i li d personnell iis
required.

Diverse sources of noise and disturbances

Lower grade sensors due to payload limitations

Wind
Rotor wake
Mechanical vibrations

Preliminary Considerations
Non-aggressive flight
Configuration space:
change position in 3D and
heading (R3xS1).
Two regimes considered:
Hovering (includes slow
motion).
Forward Flight.

Decomposition:
p
Outer loop: guidance
Velocity, position
commands

Inner loop: control

Decoupling
Stabilization

Input

Output

Lateral Cyclic
Longitudinal Cyclic

Position in horizontal
plane

Collective

Altitude

Pedal

Yaw

Inner/Outer
Loop Decomposition
Desired
- Trajectory
- Heading

Outer-loop
Controller

- Attitude
Variables
- Heave
Velocity
- Yaw Rate

Low level control signals:

- Cyclic
Helicopter
- Collective
- Pedal
Inner-loop
Controller

Concurrent Engineering Approach

REQUIREMENTS/SPECIFICATIONS FOR NON-AGGRESSIVE
FLIGHTS

Sensor
Fusion

System
Analysis

System
Ident.

Controller
Design
g

Theoretical Development

Hardware
Development
Autopilot

FPGAb
based
d

PC-based
PC
based

Software
Development

Swarms

Implementation / Testing

Theoretical Development

Sensor Fusion
GPS/INS Integration
Inclusion of laser range finders: altitude, obstacle avoidance
Other sensors

System Identification
U
Use off CIFER ffor frequency
f
response-based
b
d sys.
identification

System Analysis / Simulation / Controller Design

Models:
Mettlers Model, Gavrilets model

MATLAB/Simulink based simulator

Analysis: Diagonal dominance/Relative gain array, Modal
analysis,
l i C
Controllability,
t ll bilit Observability,
Ob
bilit Input/Output
I
t/O t t pairing
ii
Controllers: PID, LQG, Robust loop-shaping, Fuzzy, Model
predictive control

Theoretical Development
Control design approach: Linear techniques
Linear Model 1
Nonlinear Model
Of the Helicopter

Linear Model 2
Linear Model 3

Linear Model n

Linear Controller 1
Linear Controller 2
Linear Controller 3

Linear Controller n

Gain
Scheduling /
Blending

Theoretical Development
Closed-loop analysis / Simulation

Decoupling
Bandwidth
Robustness
Noise sensitivity

Outer loop

0.6
PID
Hinf

0.4
(rad)

Nonlinear model
Inner Loop

0.2
0
-0
0.2
2
-0.4

6
time(sec)

10

12

Maximum Output Complementary Sensitivity: max( (To))

20
0

Agility
Trajectory tracking

-20
-40
-60
-80
-100

PID
LQG
H

-120
-3
10

-2

10

-1

10

10

10

10

10

10

Hardware Development:
Commerciallyy Available Autopilots
p
PROPRIETARY

HARDWAREIN-THE-LOOP

INTEGRATION
WITH SIMULINK

TAKE OVER BY
EXTERNAL
PROCESSOR

PROCESSOR
TYPE

PROGRAMMABLE
ANALOG

Generation II by BAI

Yes

Rotomotion

Yes

Kestral by Procerus

Some

Yes

No

No

DSP

No

MP2028 by Micropilot

Some

Yes

No

No

DSP

No

Ezi-Nav byy Autonomous

Unmanned Air Vehicles

N
No

N
No

N
No

N
No

8 CONTROLLERS
8-CONTROLLERS

N
No

Phoenix by O-Navi

No

No

No

No

DSP

No

Piccolo II by Cloudcap

No

Yes
*with CAN card

Yes
*Real Time Workshop

No

DSP

No

Microbot by Microbotics

No

No

No

Maybe
*FPGA may allow it

FPGA/DSP

No

PCM/Controller Board by Air

Force (Wright Patterson AFB)

No

No

No

Maybe
*FPGA may allow it

FPGA/DSP

No

FCS20 by GA Tech

No

No

No

No

FPGA/DSP

No

Virginia Commonwealth Sazuki

V Board

No

No

No

No

FPGA

No

USF Proposed Design

No

Yes
*USB connection

Yes

Yes

FPGA

Yes

USF Autopilot Block Diagram

Ability to communicate with and follow commands of second processing system

&
Take over by either master computer or human pilot

USF Autopilot Block Diagram

On board pressure sensors for altitude & forward velocity

USF Autopilot Block Diagram

Flexible inputs, both digital and analog

USF Autopilot Block Diagram

Additional memory for data acquisition, kept
separate from program memory

USF Autopilot Block Diagram

Virtex II Pro FPGA
2 PowerPC
PowerPC 405
Full integration with
MATLAB / Simulink
through System
G
Generator
t Toolbox
T lb
Provided VHDL libraries
Standard System
g
Generator building
blocks,
Functions running on a
user selectable operating
system within the
PowerPCs

Implementation / Testing
Hardware / Software
Development
Customized helicopters and
instrumentation
Custom computing platform
(Linux).
Drivers for most sensors.
sensors
Preliminary suboptimal
sensor fusion.
Fuzzy logic based control

Conclusions
A Comprehensive Approach to Designing, Implementing
g Controllers for Small Unmanned
and Testing
Helicopters is an arduous process that requires:
Highly coordinated multidisciplinary work
Significant resources
Substantial manpower

There is an urgent need for establishing standard open

source HW/SW platforms for research.
With regard to low-level control there are still many open
issues that need to be addressed to guarantee robust
robust,
reliable, autonomous flight.

A Test Flight

Questions