Model-following control of a helicopter in hover

Tracking with model-following behavior for a Bell 205 helicopter is investigated using linear-quadratic optimal control. The objective of the design is to produce the desired performance in simulation for a nominal plant model of the Bell 205 in hovering flight. Two fundamentally different types of model-following control designs, explicit and implicit, are studied and discussed in this paper. The two designs result in controllers of different structures. The primary objective of the paper is to compare the merits of the resulting closed-loop systems.