Optimal trajectory generation and tracking for a helicopter in tail rotor failure

Download
2022-8-23
Arslan, Yusuf Onur
Tail rotor failure is the main reason for a variety of helicopter accidents throughout aviation history. It is troublesome to control and navigate the helicopter to a predefined landing point with a non-functioning tail rotor especially if the number of available landing sites is limited. The objective of this thesis is to generate flight trajectories for a helicopter with a failed tail rotor and to track the trajectories by a controller. In this work, the generic helicopter model in FLIGHTLAB software is utilized and a tail rotor failed model is created. The path generation process is performed offline in MATLAB environment with an open-source trajectory optimization tool, OptimTraj. The trajectories are obtained for different scenarios by defining several constraints. An inversion-based controller is designed in order to bring the helicopter to a specified point in space by position trajectory tracking. An LQI controller is designed in order to change the trim condition of the helicopter by state trajectory tracking. The trajectories are given as a reference to the tracking controllers and simulations are performed with both linear and nonlinear models by communicating FLIGHTLAB and SIMULINK.

Suggestions

Development of a hybrid global optimization algorithm and its application to helicopter rotor structural optimization
Bilen, Muhammed Emre; Özgüven, Hasan Nevzat; Department of Mechanical Engineering (2019)
Helicopters are notorious for their high vibration levels and the rotor system are the main contributors to the problem. The rotor vibrations can be minimized by optimizing the rotor structure, which require time-consuming high-fidelity solution for vibration predictions. To solve this problem, an effective and efficient global search algorithm called Explorer-Settler Optimization algorithm is developed by combining the advantageous aspects of Particle Swarm Optimization and Nelder-Mead Optimization algorit...
Optimal Design of a Miniature Quad Tilt Rotor UAV
Kahvecioglu, Ahmet Caner; Alemdaroglu, Nafiz (2015-06-12)
This paper describes the design procedure of a convertible miniature (mini and micro) quad tilt rotor unmanned air vehicle (UAV), which has about 2 meters of wing span, one hour of mission time and 5 kilograms of total weight. The aircraft is driven by four brushless direct current motors, and the structure of it completely made of composite materials. When the wing and tail of the aircraft are dismounted, it operates as a quad- rotor with tilting rotors. The aircraft is planned to carry a gimbal camera wei...
Designing autopilot and guidance algorithms to control translational and rotational dynamics of a fixed wing VTOL UAV
Güçlü, Anı; Kurtuluş, Dilek Funda; Department of Aerospace Engineering (2020)
Guidance and autopilot algorithms are designed and applied to a fixed wing VTOL air vehicle. The algorithms are developed on a rotary wing and a fixed air vehicle. Each air vehicle is identified by experimentation to reduce the discrepancies among the system model and the actual air vehicles. Designed controllers for the air vehicles are deployed to Pixhawk Cube controller board. Indoor and outdoor flight tests are carried out. For the rotary wing air vehicle, active disturbance rejection control algorithms...
Design and evaluation of a helicopter main rotor electrohydraulic control system
Düzağaç, Hasan Ali; Çalışkan, Hakan; Balkan, Raif Tuna; Department of Mechanical Engineering (2022-8-26)
Helicopters are widely used aircrafts for several purposes. Main Rotor of a Helicopter creates necessary flight forces for performing flight operation. Orientation of a Helicopter Rotor System is determined and controlled manually by pilot and automatically by automatic control system via hydraulically operated flight control actuators. In this research, a novel electrohydraulically operated helicopter main rotor control system is mathematically designed and developed to improve overall performance of contr...
Design and aerodynamic analysis of a VTOL tilt-wing UAV
Cakir, Hasan; Kurtuluş, Dilek Funda (2022-01-01)
The aerodynamic design and analysis of an Unmanned Air Vehicle, capable of vertical take-off and landing by employing fixed four rotors on the tilt-wing and two rotors on the tilt-tail, will be presented in this study. Both main wing and the horizontal tail can be tilted 90 degrees. During VTOL, transition and forward flight, aerodynamic and thrust forces have been employed. Different flight conditions, including the effects of angle of attack, side slip, wing tilt angle and control surfaces deflection angl...
Citation Formats
Y. O. Arslan, “Optimal trajectory generation and tracking for a helicopter in tail rotor failure,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2022.