Control augmentation strategies for helicopters used as personal aerial vehicles in low-speed regime

In this paper an augmentation strategy is implemented with the goal of making the behavior of an actual helicopter similar to that of a new class of aerial systems called Personal Aerial Vehicles (PAVs). PAVs are meant to be own by flight-naïve pilots, i.e., pilots with minimal flight experience. One feature required for achieving this goal, is to have a Translation Rate Command (TRC) response type in the hover and low-speed regime. In this paper, a TRC response type is obtained for a UH-60 helicopter simulation model in hover and low-speed regime through the implementation of nonlinear back stepping control. The responses of the rotorcraft with TRC response type are evaluated with the metrics defined in the Aeronautical Design Standard ADS-33. E-PRF. Simulations show the efficiency of the control scheme in tracking the reference velocities and the achievement of the requirements to have level 1 Handling Qualities (HQ) for the TRC response type.