Lagrangian helicopter model

There is a growing interest in the construction and control of autonomous model helicopters [47, 90]. Recently, a number of authors from the control community have begun to investigate an integrated non-linear dynamic model of a scale model autonomous helicopter (cf. conference papers [28, 62, 95, 101, 119] and more recently the jounal papers [93, 102]). Model helicopters display a considerably different dynamic response than full scale helicopters. For example, the classical model [87, pg. 557] used for a full size helicopter does not model the interaction of the rotor blade dynamics with the rigid body dynamics of the airframe. Instead, the rotor blade dynamics are incorporated into the modelling of a daunting collection of aerodynamic and parasitic forces, which in turn act on the rigid body dynamics. It appears from experience that the regulation of the rotor speed of a model helicopter is an important part of the integrated control problem [118].