Disturbance observer-based robust coordination control for unmanned autonomous helicopter slung-load system via coupling analysis method

• Published in: Applied mathematics and computation Vol. 427; p. 127148
• Main Authors: Liu, Lijun, Chen, Mou, Li, Tao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 15.08.2022
• Subjects: Coordination control; Coupling analysis method; Disturbance observer; Sliding mode control; Unmanned autonomous helicopter (UAH) slung-load system; Coupling analysis method; Unmanned autonomous helicopter (UAH) slung-load system; Disturbance observer; Coordination control; Sliding mode control
• ISSN: 0096-3003; 1873-5649
• DOI: 10.1016/j.amc.2022.127148

•This work studies the robust coordination control for a strong coupled and under-actuated unmanned autonomous helicopter (UAH) slung-load system subject to external disturbances.•Since there exists the strong coupling between the slung-load and UAH system during the flight process, the dynamic coupling matrix is given to analyze the coupling relationship between the UAH position system and the slung-load system. Then, a robust coordination controller is designed for the position system of the UAH and slung-load one by combining the hierarchical sliding mode control and DOBC method.•Based on Lyapunov stability theory, during estimating the derivative of Lyapunov function, whether the elements of the coupling are beneficial or harmful is discussed for the attitude system of the UAH. Then, an improved controller is designed for the UAH attitude system by combining the backstepping method, DOBC technique, and dynamic surface control, in which the detrimental coupling is eliminated and the beneficial one is retained to improve the control performance. This work studies the robust coordination control for a strong coupled and under-actuated unmanned autonomous helicopter (UAH) slung-load system subject to external disturbances. Firstly, disturbance observers are designed to obtain the disturbance estimations, and a dynamic coupling matrix is introduced to describe the coupling relationships between the UAH system and the slung-load system. Secondly, based on the proposed coupling matrix, a disturbance observer-based coordination control scheme is designed for the position system of the UAH and the slung-load one by using hierarchical sliding mode control. Thirdly, an improved controller is designed for the attitude system of the UAH by combining the backstepping control, disturbance observer, and dynamic surface control, in which the detrimental coupling is suppressed while the beneficial one is retained to improve control performance. Especially, the stability for the overall closed-loop system is guaranteed based on Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, some simulations are presented to show the effectiveness and advantage of the proposed control scheme.