Model Predictive Control for a Small Scale Unmanned Helicopter

Kinematical and dynamical equations of a small scale unmanned helicoper are presented in the paper. Based on these equations a model predictive control (MPC) method is proposed for controlling the helicopter. This novel method allows the direct accounting for the existing time delays which are used to model the dynamics of actuators and aerodynamics of the main rotor. Also the limits of the actuators are taken into the considerations during the controller design. The proposed control algorithm was verified in real flight experiments where good perfomance was shown in postion control mode

Inertia Matching Manipulability and Load Matching Optimization for Humanoid Jumping Robot

Human jumping motion includes stance phase, flight phase and landing impact phase. Jumping robot belongs to a variable constraints system because every phase has different constraint conditions. An unified dynamics equation during stance phase and flight phase is established based on floated-basis space. Inertia matching is used to analyze actuator/gear systems and select the optimum gear ratio based on the transmission performance between the torque produced at the actuator and the torque applied to the load. Load matching is an important index which affects jumping performance and reflects the capability of supporting a weight or mass. It also affects the distributing of the center of gravity (COG). Regarding jumping robot as a redundant manipulator with a load at end-effector, inertia matching can be applied to optimize load matching for jumping robot. Inertia matching manipulability and directional manipulability are easy to analyze and optimize the load matching parameters. A 5th order polynomial function is defined to plan COG trajectory of jumping motion, taking into account the constraint conditions of both velocity and acceleration. Finally, the numerical simulation of vertical jumping and experimental results show inertia matching is in direct proportion to jumping height, and inertia matching manipulability is a valid method to load matching optimization and conceptual design of robot