Robust Tracking Control of Helicopters Using Backstepping with Disturbance Observers

This paper addresses the robust and accurate trajectory tracking problem for unmanned helicopters in the presence of model uncertainties and external disturbances. First, the helicopter's model is simplified to a six‐degrees‐of‐freedom rigid body augmented with a simplified rotor dynamic model, with the model uncertainties and the external disturbances being treated as lumped unknown disturbances. Second, a nonlinear disturbance observer is designed to estimate this lumped disturbance. Then, a backstepping controller with disturbance compensation is designed to ensure robust and highly trajectory tracking. After that, the theoretical analysis of the efficiency of the designed disturbance observer‐based backstepping controller (Backstepping+ DO ) is shown by the L yapunov theory. Finally, simulation results and conclusions are presented and discussed.