Design of optimal controller for TRMS based on reduced order state observer

This paper presents the optimal control of the twin rotor MIMO system (TRMS) in real-time environment. TRMS is a test rig of the helicopter where the coupling effect between the two rotors play a vital role in the performance of the system and it is taken into consideration in it's mathematical modelling. The reduced order state observer based optimal controller is designed to control the TRMS. The main reason for adopting the reduced order state observer is that all the states of the TRMS cannot be measured in real-time situation. The proposed design technique is implemented in simulation as well as in experimental set-up of TRMS. The results obtained are found to be satisfactory.