Hovering stability of a model helicopter

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the stability of a small scale six-degree-of-freedom nonlinear helicopter model at translator velocities and angular displacements while it is transiting to hover with different initial conditions. Design/methodology/approach - In this study, model predictive controller and linear quadratic regulator are designed and compared within each other for the stabilization of the open loop unstable nonlinear helicopter model. Findings - This study shows that the helicopter is able to reach to the desired target with good robustness, low control effort and small steady-state error under disturbances such as parameter uncertainties, mistuned controller. Originality/value - The purpose of using model predictive control for three axes of the autopilot is to decrease the control effort and to make the close-loop system insensitive against modeling uncertainties.