| The twin rotor MIMO system (TRMS) is a helicopter-like system that is restricted to two degrees of freedom, pitch and yaw. It is a complicated nonlinear, coupled, MIMO system used for the verification of control methods and observers. There have been many methods successfully applied to the system ranging from simple proportional integral derivative (PID) controllers, to machine learning algorithms, nonlinear control methods and other less explored methods like deadbeat control and various optimal methodologies. This thesis details the design procedure for two different control methods. The first is a suboptimal tracking controller using a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) with integral action. The second is the design of several adaptive sliding mode controller to provide robust tracking control of the TRMS. Once the design is complete the controllers are tested in simulation and their performance is compared against a PID controller experimentally. The performance of the controllers are also compared against other controllers in the literature. The ability of the sliding mode controllers (SMC) to suppress chattering is also be explored. |
