Beihang team develops helicopter pilot robot that can independently control flight

On September 18, Professor Li Daochun and Academician Xiang Jinwu's team from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics published a paper titled "Robot Pilot: A New Autonomous System Toward Flying Manned Aerial Vehicles" in the journal "Engineering", introducing the new helicopter piloting robot they developed.

At the heart of the research is a new type of robotic system capable of independently flying a manned helicopter, creating a new type of unmanned aerial system.

The research team discussed the concept and advantages of aircraft driving robots in detail, and proposed a helicopter driving robot for manned helicopters. The robot designed a driving robot servo mechanism based on the control characteristics of the helicopter control mechanism, and based on the kinematic analysis of the robot servo mechanism, established a robot flight controller with a direct drive method to reduce the time delay and control error in the robot servo process.

The research team also built a ground station system that supports different flight modes and functional integration. Finally, they designed and manufactured a helicopter driving robot prototype and installed it on a helicopter for flight testing. The test results showed that the robot was able to independently complete forward flight, backward flight, side flight and turning flight, verifying its effectiveness.

▲ Application of aircraft driving robots and their flight modes

The innovation of this research is that it uses a non-invasive conversion method that allows manned aircraft to be quickly and reversibly converted into unmanned aerial systems. This method not only retains the load capacity and safety level of the original aircraft, but also avoids the need for complex modifications to the original aircraft. In addition, the driving robot can also serve as a co-pilot, improving the automation level of existing aircraft and providing a research platform for emerging technologies such as pilot assistants and smart cockpits.

In terms of experimental verification, the research team installed a prototype of the driving robot on an SVH-4 light training helicopter and conducted ground tests and flight tests. The test results showed that the driving robot can quickly and accurately control the helicopter's control mechanism and perform well in flight tasks such as hovering, forward flight, backward flight, side flight and turning.

▲ Ground observation and flight attitude of the helicopter piloting robot when performing different flight missions. (a) forward flight; (b) backward flight; (c) side flight; (d) turning flight

尽管取得了显著的成果，但研究团队指出，驾驶机器人在操控过程中存在明显的姿态振荡问题。他们计划在未来的工作中进一步提高驾驶机器人的操控性能和适应性，考虑部署基于模型的现代控制方法或智能控制方法，以优化飞行性能。