IMPACT OF CENTER OF GRAVITY IN QUADROTOR HELICOPTER CONTROLLER DESIGN

This paper deals with the development of an autonomous miniature quadrotor helicopter for indoor applications – so called Indoor Mini Aerial Vehicle (IMAV). Worldwide approaches towards algorithms for autonomous control using ideal models with the centre of gravity (CG) in the origin of the body fixed coordinate frame. In-flight payload droppings or construction of IMAV may cause problems, e.g. sensors cannot be mounted perfectly in the CG or the CG is shifted out of the origin of the body fixed coordinate system. The consequences are additional accelerations and velocities perceived by the sensors so that these effects have to be covered by the control system. This paper describes the modeling of the dynamic behavior with respect to variable CGs and control aspects of a quadrotor IMAV. The dynamic model and the controllers have been validated in simulations and under real flight conditions.