Hierarchical control of small autonomous helicopters

Autonomous air vehicles have numerous applications, all of which require the vehicle to have stable and accurate control of its motion. In the paper, a hierarchical control system for small autonomous helicopters is described. The control system consists of four components: a navigation filter, an inner-loop hover control system, a waypoint guidance system, and a ground-based flight manager. All four elements of the control system have been verified with flight tests of the Draper small autonomous air vehicle.