A Study on the 3-DOF Attitude Control of Free-Flying Vehicle
Duckgee Park, Moon-Soo Park, Suk-Kyo Hong
Robot Application Laboratory
Depahment of Electronics Engineering, Ajou University, Suwon 442-749, Korea
Tel) +82-31-219-2489 Fax) +82-31-219-9531
duckgeeOLmadang.ai ou.ac.kr
ABSTRACT ' longitudinal, lateral flight, pirouette or hovering.
This paper is studying on the 3-DOF attitude
control of a helicopter. The characteristic to be
heavily coupled with inputs and outputs, and the
serious non-linearity appear in the flying
helicopter system. Due to these characteristics of
a helicopter, people apply the non-linear control,
multi-variable control or optimal control for the
attitude control of helicopter. And it is too hard
to defiie the relations of input and output in a
view of dynamics, therefore others also study
-
this theme in a view of AI control (Amfcial
Intelligent control) based on the fuzzy theory or
neural network. But in the hovering, based for
all flight of a helicopter, those characteristics -
heavily coupled system and non-linearity reduce
considerably. In this paper, we assume that those
characteristics are able to be disregarded in
hovering. The model helicopter system that is
constructed with three independent SISO (single
input single output) system, is acquired by
system identification method, and then the . systems, thls method IS not appropriate for us to
PD-control (Proportional Derivative control) is
applied individually to three independent SISO
systems for an 3DOF attitude control of model
helicopter in hovering. Those assumptions are
verified by the experiment.
Keyword : Model Helicopter, System
Identification Method, PD-control
1. INTRODUCTION
A helicopter has various flight modes such as
02001 IEEE
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These many flight modes of a helicopter enable
to be applied in the many industrial and other
field surveying geography, auto-pilot for some
job, for the use of agriculture or dangerous task
related a nuclear etc. The reason why this paper
is on the attitude control of a helicopter in the
hovering is that hovering is the base of all
flight mode of helicopter. For the sake of those
many appliances, at first we should control a
helicopter. And in general, we must know about
characteristics of system to be controlled. The
characteristics mean the relation between inputs
and outputs. The method to define the relation
is solving the system dynamics. But this method
is so difficult in many situations, especially
helicopter has heavy non-line& and coupled
characteristics between input and output
Therefore solving the dynamics includes
approximations and simphfying a system. These
approximations and simpllfying the system cause
some uncertainties. Also in the case of complex
acquire inputs-outputs relationship. Instead of
solving the dynamics of the system to be
controled, we define the inputs-outputs
relationship through real inputs not and outputs
data from the system. So called System
Identification Method. System Identification
defines a system in a view of mathematics and
stochastics. This approach to the system has
good advantages like highly correspondence the
original system with the identified model,
because there is few approximations or
simplifying the system. But this system
identification method has disadvantages also like
ISIE 2001, Pusan. KOREA
a sensitivity for a noise or disturbance. model,

In the hovering, based for all flight of a

helicopter, those characteristics - heavily coupled
system and non-linearity are reduced
considerably. In this paper under the assumption
to be able to disregard these inputs-outputs where ~ ( t is
) regression vector.
coupling in system, the model helicopter system
that is constructed with three independent We estimate unknown system parameter using
SISO(single input single output) systems -roll, the Least Square EstimationaSE) as minimizing
pitch and yaw - is acquired through the system the square of the prediction error, ~ ( 0)
t , denoted
identification method. Eq (1).

2. SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION

PEM(Prediction E m r Method) is one of the we can express the number of N data to

methods that predict the system parameters using matrix.
the real data of inputs to the system and outputs
from the system. It defines the parameters to
minimze the square of the error between the
real outputs and the predicted outputs. The block
diag” of the algorithm for the system
parameter prediction is like the following figure.
and we can change Eq (4)

We should seek predicted regressor vector, 3,

that minimize VdB),the criterion of least square
estimation.

Prediciion Error

Fig.1. Block Diagram of PEM

The predition e m r E is defined by

3. CONTROLLER DESIGN AND

EXPERIMENTS
where ~ ( is
8 a output of the helicopter and
$t) is the predicted output. A predicted output The model helicopter system that is constructed
at) is related with unknown parameter B. with three independent SISO(single input single
output) system, is acquired by system
identification method, and then the
PD-control(Proportiona1 Derivative control) is
Assuming the system structure to be identified applied individually to three independent SISO
as a ARX(autoregressive with extra input) systems for an 3-DOF attitude control of model

ISIE 2001, Pusan, KOREA

helicopter in hovering.

A block diagram of control to be applied to

each SISO system is depicted.
DATA Analyze

Control Decision

Controller Plant *
YO

'1 '1

cuecc tttttt
Fig 2. Block Diagram of PD Control c

An input and output relationship for this

control system can be derived in the frequency
domain.
Fig 3. System Configuration

The objective for an experiment is model

helicopter Kyosho Concept R-60 because a
model helicopter has the same characteristics of
a real helicopter. For main control system, we
use a Pentium processor with PC-104 bus type.
And for System Identification, we sampled the
data of inputs and outputs with 15ms interval -
this period is synchronous with the period of
RC transmitter signal.
We attempt a 3-DOF(degree of freedom)
attitude control A helicopter has 6-DOF
originally. To restrict 6-DOF to 3-D0F, model
helicopter is attached on a gimbal with 3-DOF.
The information of an attitude is acquired Fig 4. 3DOF Gimbal
through the encoder aligned, each axis - roll,
pitch and yaw. The ecdoder data is converted to
the angle of position We iden@ and control Most important thing to be considerd befoR we
the system of each axis individually using this identify some systems is what structure of model
data and implements The system configuration we will use. The recommended ARX model for
and a feature of gimbal is depicted. the system to be identified is that it has four
poles, a zero and a delay of one sample.

.. .
1262 ISIE 2001, Pusan, KOREA
 Y(t) = - a1 At- 1) - azy(t- 2) - QY(t-3) where T,,, is a trasnfer function of roll and
(10) Tfic,,and Tw are transfer function of pitch
- a,(Y- 4) f b i d t- 1)
and yaw respectively.
Before we use this to control a helicopter, we
This is refered from some papers [1][7].
should confirm how this model could be well
defined. The method for confrming is wing to
We measure the input-output data during the 10
comparing the predicted output and true outputs.
minutes.(depicted only an axis of roil)
The predicted output can be generated by
appling the true data of input to the identified
system. This true data to be used to predict
output, is different with the data used to identify
the system. (depicted only an axis of roll)
0.4 -

. . :.
-0.6, ..
-0.8 , _

-1.0
0 1000 zoo0 3000 4000
samples (Ts=0.015s e c )

I
(-””I ..,*1,1.1..1..1

Fig 5. Input and position output for axis of roll

With these a number of 40,000 sample, we

determine the parameter in Eq (10).

Table 1. Parameters of the sysem for roll

axis

I I I

0.00155 0.0183 0.563 0.272 0.07.53 Fig 6 Comparison- true output wth predchon output
I I I I I I
. . The predicted data in Fig 6. is from the
“ f e r function of roll ms A true data and
predicted data is plotted together. * A s can see
above figure, the result is satidmble for the
identified system, to be used to design a
We can accomplish transfer function using this controller.
parameters. These data is the discrete time, so
the transfer function of this system is expressed
207
in Zdomain The result? of transfer functions of
each axis are following

;
m -1.0 , ,

-1.5

0 LOO 260 300 400 500 GOO

Tw= 0.007214~~
z4-0 .2449z3- 0 .0789Z2- 0.606~- 0.03 Fig 7. Prediction error

1263 ISIE 2001. Pusan, KOREA

The maximum of prediction e m r is less than
1" over the sample data. (depicted only an axis 20 -
of roll)
10-

Table 2. Prediction error

prediction error

-0.00039 0.0912

The standard deviation of estimation error of

output is less than 0.1 degree. Hence idenNied Fig 8. Experiment of the 3DOF attitude
model is confiied, this model we identified can control (1)
be referred for control of the model helicopter.
First we must design the controller for attitude
of helicopter using this identifed model, and
then simulate. The controller we would use is
PD (Proportional Derivative) controller. We
control.the three. axes independently at a time.
The gain constant K p and KO is denoted in
Table 3.

Table 3. Gain constant of PD controller

I KP I KD I -2o-c.
0
I
2
. ,
4
. ,
6
. ,
U
. , .
1 0 1
, .
2 1
,
4
I

Time, (sec)
roll 6 1
pitch 1 5.2 1.3
Fig 9. Experiment of the 3-DOF attitude control (2)

4. SIMULATION AND RESULTS
To assess the accuracy of identified model and
the performance of controller, we compare a
simulation and experiment The initial error is 2
0" and 15' , for the system of roll axis and
pitch axis respectively. The control is performed
simultaneous. And about 20 sec later, a
disturbance is applied. At this time, the system
including the PD-controller shows a good
regulation
Following figure is the result of an attitude
control experiment. Fig 8. and Fig 9. show the
result of the regulation of the initial error. In
the figUre; you can see that the initial errors of
model helicopter reduce rapidly. The figure tell
us that the model is valid for attitude control of
helicopter and the assumption is reasonable.
But we can see the oscillation with frequecy of
1 Hz in Fig 8 and Fig 9. The oscillation with
Same phase is appear in the roll axis and the
pitch axis. Despite of a different phase of initial
condition, both responses oscillate in the same
period and with same phase about 1 sec later.
So this oscillation is originated from the'.gimbal,
not true system of helicopter. If we filter off the
experiment data above 1 Hz, as can see Fig 10.
and Fig 11. the experiment result and the
simulation result are almost exact. Again this
fact tell us that oscillation is the from the
gimbal.
In Fig 10 and Fig 11, we can see that
simulation result differ form the experiment. The
reason is that the data of experiment include the
oscillation of the gimbal.

1264 ISIE 2001, Pusan, KOREA

 GPS(Globa1 Positioning System), IMU(Inertia1
Measurement Unit) and embedded PC system or
wireless modem are essential. This is a complete
auto-pilot flight.

5. REFERENCE

[l] Pascale Bendotti and John C. Monk,

“Identification and Stanbilization of a Model
Helicopter in
Hover,” Caltech, Electrical Engineering Dept.
[2] T. J . Koo, F Hoffmann, H. Shim, B.
Fig 10. Filtered data and simulation (roll)
Sinopoli and S. sastry, “HYBRID CONTROL OF
AN AUTONOMOUS HELICOFIER,”
University of California, Berkeley.
5 [3] Gene F. Franklin Digital Control of L?vnamic
0
@stem. Addison Wesley. 1998.
1 [4] L. Ljung. System Ident$cation, Theory for the
8, User. Prentice Hall, 1987.
E.io [5] Richard C . Dorf. Modem Control Sptems.

-15
Addison Wesley, 1995.
[6] Rolf Johansson System Modeling and
0 1 2 3 b
”e (4 Zdentrficabon. Prentice Hall, 1993.
[I Raymond W. Prouty. Helicopter Perfrmance,
Fig 11. Filtered data and simulation (pitch) Sla6ility, and Control. Krieger publishing conpny
Malabar, Florida, 1995
From the assumption that a model helicopter in
the hovering can be regarded as a system
composed with three independent system of each
axis, we identify the system of each axis by
appling the LSE(1east square estimation). We
construct a PD controller. The controller for the
3DOF attitude control has a good perfomance
The proposed controller rejects the error for any
intial amtude.
The results is sufficient to venfy the
assumption that it is enable to control the
attitude of the helicopter in hovering for
individual channels Whch constructed with roll,
pitch and yaw. The characteristics of a heavy
non-linearity and a strongly coupled
inputs-outputs relation of the helicopter are
reduced considerably in the hovering.

In the future, we plan to expand t h s study to

6DOF (degree of freedom) For that planning,

1265 ISIE 2001, Pusan, KOREA