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.