Hovering and Attitude control of a mini-helicopter


I have worked on the synthesis of different flight controllers for an X-Cell mini-helicopter. These controllers are developed on the basis of the most realistic mathematical model currently available. Two hybrid intelligent control systems, combining computational intelligence methodologies with other control techniques, are investigated. For both systems, Mamdani-type fuzzy controllers determine the set points for altitude/attitude control. These fuzzy controllers are designed using a simple rule base. 

     The first scheme consists of conventional SISO PID controllers for z-position and roll, pitch and yaw angles. 

     In the second scheme, two of the previous PID controllers are used for roll and pitch, and a linear regulator is added to control altitude and yaw angle. 

     These control schemes mimic the action of an expert pilot. It is shown that the designed controllers exhibit good performance for hover flight and control positioning at slow speed.

Tracking of a sinusoidal reference for altitude


  1. E. Sanchez, H. M. Becerra and C.M. Velez, “Combining fuzzy, PID and regulation control for an autonomous mini-helicopter,” Information Sciences, Vol. 177, Issue 10, pp. 1999-2022, May 2007 (Impact factor = 2.147).
  2. E. Sanchez, H. M. Becerra and C.M. Velez, “Combining fuzzy, PID and regulation control for an unmanned helicopter,” International Seminar on Computational Intelligence (ISCI'05), pp. 18-31, Mexico city, Mexico, October 2005.
  3. E. Sanchez, H. M. Becerra and C.M. Velez, “Combining fuzzy and PID control for an unmanned helicopter,” North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society Annual Conference (NAFIPS'05), pp. 235-240, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, June 2005. 


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