Teaching Control Theory with a Simplified Helicopter Model and a Classroom Fitting Hardware Test-Bench

This paper describes a practical approach in teaching control engineering topics. A simplified helicopter model is introduced as an example. A controller design stabilizing the simplified helicopter around the yaw-axis is presented. It is used in a flipped classroom concept, that allows students to gain hands-on experience in the field of control engineering. Moreover, a helicopter test-bench for the simplified helicopter is described, that uses a Raspberry Pi as a Matlab Simulink target. The test-bench can be used in classrooms to test the above mentioned controller design. From a education point of view, first experiences with the students show that the test-bench is well accepted and arouses curiosity about the underlying technical problems.