J Electr Eng Technol.2017; 12(?

): 1921-718 ISSN(Print) 1975-0102

http://doi.org/10.???/JEET.2017.12.3.1921 ISSN(Online) 2093-7423

Fuzzy Model-Based Output-Tracking Control for 2 Degree-of-Freedom

Helicopter

Wook Chang*, Ji Hyun Moon** and Ho Jae Lee†

Abstract – This paper addresses the control problem of a laboratory-level 2 degree-of-freedom

helicopter. The exact fuzzy model in a Takagi – Sugeno form is constructed by the sector nonlinearity
technique, and is then represented as a set of uncertain linear systems. Output-tracking controller is
designed in terms of linear matrix inequalities and the closed-loop stability is rigorously analyzed.
Experimental evaluation shows that the proposed method is of benefit to many real industrial plants.

Keywords: Experimental helicopter, fuzzy model, output tracking, stability

1. Introduction investigated. Experiment results are included to demon-

strate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

g
Various control schemes have been developed for Notations An ellipsis is adopted for long symmetric
practical nonlinear plants, among which a successful one matrix expressions, e.g.,
can be referred to fuzzy control in a Takagi–Sugeno (T–
S) form. Achievements from theoretical standpoint in
this area are actually too many to cite. To the contrary, its in
ad
practical usefulness has not been sufficiently revealed.
One can exemplify the applications to chaos [1-3], power
systems [4], buck converters [5], and gas furnace [6]. We 2. Modeling
note that their effectivenesses are evaluated through
re

numerical simulations. 2.1 System Dynamics

Motivated by the above, we address the output-tracking
control problem of a laboratory-level experimental helicopter As shown in Fig. 1, the experiment system consists of a
f

with 2 degree-of-freedom (DOF) [7]. Although the apparatus body and a supporting base. The main and the tail rotors
oo

is not an actual but a simplified one, it exhibits main
characteristics of the real helicopter, i.e., intrinsic instability,
nonlinearity, and the cross-coupled dynamics [8, 9]. Hence,
the problem of interest herein is yet practically valuable.
Pr
are driven by two voltage inputs to control the pitch and
the yaw angles of the body, respectively. Observing Fig. 2,
the dynamics is derived as:

In this paper, T–S fuzzy modeling of the 2-DOF

helicopter is first performed by the aid of the sector
(1)
nonlinearity technique [10]. For nonlinear output-tracking
(regulation), a partial differential Francis–Isidori–Byrnes
(F–I–B) equation should be involved. When a system is
restricted to the T–S form, the F–I–B equation is reduced
to a nonlinear ordinary differential form, which is still
difficult or impossible to solve [11, 12]. The reason lies in
the interaction among the fuzzy rules. In order to ease that
burden, the fuzzy model is converted to a set of uncertain
linear systems [13]. Based on that, the output-tracking
controller to guarantee a uniform ultimate boundedness
(UUB) is synthesized, where the exosystem state is
regarded as disturbance. Since it is actually a deterministic,
rather than unpredictable, input, the refined stability is
† Corresponding Author: Dept. of Electronic Engineering, Inha
Univerity, Korea. (mylchi@inha.ac.kr)
* Kitronyx, Korea.(wook.chang@kitronyx.com)
** Dept. of Electronic Engineering, Inha Univerity, Korea.
(mooonjh87@inha.edu)
Received: January 20, 2016; Accepted: November 4, 2017 Fig. 1. Experimental 2-DOF helicopter

1921
Copyright ⓒ The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 Fuzzy Model-Based Output-Tracking Control for 2 Degree-of-Freedom Helicopter

where is the pitch angle; is the yaw angle. with slight abuse on the notation for the output
The parameters are summarized in Table 1. , where and .
Remark 1: The rotation of the main rotor causes a load
torque on the rotor shaft that is in turn seen at the 2.2 Fuzzy modeling
yaw axis. It is known as the parallel axis theorem [14].
Similarly, the rotation of the tail rotor causes a force To represent (2) as a T–S form, consider the following
acting on the body at a distance from the yaw convex combination
axis as well as a torque about the pitch axis.
Let the input and the state be and
. Then the state-space equation for (1) is
constructed by
Solving this yields

(2)

From the fact that

g
in
ad
is determined,
where we set rad, due to the structural restriction
re

on the hinge between the body and the base.

It results in the two-rule affine T–S fuzzy model of
f
oo

Fig. 2. Free body diagram of the 2-DOF helicopter

Table 1. System parameters of the experimental setup

Pr

1922 │ J Electr Eng Technol.2017; 12(1): 1921-718

 Wook Chang, Ji Hyun Moon and Ho Jae Lee

where

where , , are known of compatible dimensions,

and is an unknown function matrix with .
The model (4) is then rewritten as

(6)

3. Design

Consider the exosystem

To deal with the non-vanishing perturbation
, we introduce a new state .
Defining , the augmented dynamics becomes

g
where is the reference for to track. Without loss

in
of generality, we assume . Consider the
(3)
following transform
ad
(7)
where
and take the controller of the form
re

(8)
2.3 Alternative representation
f

where and are solutions to the following matrix

equation
oo

To overcome strong nonlinear interactions among the

fuzzy rules, (3) is represented as a set of uncertain linear
systems [13]. Define an indicate function
Pr

The closed-loop system is given by

then (3) with is represented as a set of uncertain

linear systems in the form of
(9)

(4)

where where . Due to Remark 3, also

can be decomposed in the form of .
Theorem 1: If there exist , ,
(5) , and s.t.

Remark 2: Matrix in (5) is used not to

represent real uncertainties but to lump all interactions (10)
among the local models in (3) in terms of uncertainty.
Remark 3: Matrix (5) can be structured as follows:

http://www.jeet.or.kr │ 1923
 Fuzzy Model-Based Output-Tracking Control for 2 Degree-of-Freedom Helicopter

then in (6) tracks with UUB via (8), where exosystems (i.e., fast-varying ) by using the approach of
. Filippov [17], where the trajectory of (3) is defined by a
Proof: Define a Lyapunov function by solution of the differential inclusion
. Then along (9) excluding

where stands for the convex hull of a set. The

is negative definite for all if methodology to conduct this generalization will be
addressed in the future research.

4. Further Analysis
Congruence transforming the foregoing inequality with
Since is the deterministic external input, rather than
, changing variable , and using the Schur
an unpredictable disturbance, the more refined stability can
complement, we obtain (10). If this is true, we have
be investigated.
Assumption 1: Given any frozen with some

g
bounded , s.t.
.

in
Theorem 2: Theorem 1 guarantees that ,
s.t., for
ad
re

where
along (9). Moreover
f
oo

and is chosen so as to be . Define

. One can easily agree that as long Proof: Let to write
Pr

as , where is a compact set.

According to the standard Lyapunov theorem, there exists a (11)
finite time s.t. enters at and
remains for all . Thus is bounded and ultimately By expansion, we compute
converges to . This implies that the claim follows.
Remark 4: Several comments are made.
● Model (9) is represented as a state-dependent switched
system, while (8) generates a time-driven reference signal. where
One may say that (9) contains time-dependent switching.
In fact, it is not easy to distinguish between state- and time-
dependent switching, because trajectories under state-
dependent switching are also those under a suitably defined
time-dependent one [15]. In view of that observation, (9)
can be regarded as a time-dependent switched system. We
know that stability of the time-dependent switching among (please see Appendix for details). Hence, (11) is rewritten
stable systems can be determined via such as an average as
dwell time [16], which can be guaranteed if the exosystem
is suitably defined (i.e, is slowly varying).
(12)
● It is also possible to cover the more general

1924 │ J Electr Eng Technol.2017; 12(1): 1921-718

 Wook Chang, Ji Hyun Moon and Ho Jae Lee

We know that , along

, where . Thereby
s.t.

Let

Let and .
Straightforward calculation of along (12) (rather than
) results in
and

then the foregoing inequality can be majorized by

Since is in and vanishes at ,

g
s.t.

in
ad
It now holds that
Combining this with (15) results in
(13)
re

Continuity says that which is contradictory, so we conclude

for and . We will
show by contradiction such a does not exist. From the
f

Lyapunov, we have
oo

It remains to show that whenever , as

(14) . From the theorem, we know so (13) is
majorized to
and
Pr

(15)

By continuity again, s.t. Construct a comparison system

Therefore
which can be shown to be asymptotic stable, by using a
generalization of the invariance arguments in [18, Lemma
5.3.71] under the property . Then the comparison
principle says that as .
Integrating the both sides of (13) from to gives

5. Experimental Results

The parameters for the experimental setup are tabulated

in Table 1. Variables and , and their time-derivatives
are measured through the encoders attached on the vertical
and horizontal axis, respectively. The periods for analog to

http://www.jeet.or.kr │ 1925
 Fuzzy Model-Based Output-Tracking Control for 2 Degree-of-Freedom Helicopter

digital conversion and vice versa are s, which is

small enough to neglect the effects of the sampled data.
Experiments are carried out according to the exosystem
parameterized by

with for and for

, signifying that is zero and sufficiently
small in an average sense in the respective time intervals.
The initial state is set to . By Theorem 1 with
, we obtain

g
in
ad
Fig. 3. Time responses of p and y by the proposed method:
actual (solid) and desired (dashed)
f re
oo

Time responses are shown in Fig. 3. Before s

(i.e., ), and are well guided to the horizontal
attitude. After s (i.e., ), all
Pr

angles of the controlled 2-DOF helicopter that have

sustained the equilibrium quickly follow the desired
sinusoidal trajectories with a bounded deviation, despite
the nonlinear dynamic behavior. This result coincides with
the stability analysis that we conclude in Theorem 2. Fig. 4
shows the control voltage inputs for the main rotor and the
tail rotor.

6. Conclusions

We discussed the modeling and the output-tracking

control of the experimental 2-DOF helicopter. The fuzzy
model in T--S form was derived and rearranged as a set of
uncertain linear systems to exclude the interaction among
fuzzy rules. The design condition was formulated in the
linear matrix inequality format. The closed-loop stability
was further analyzed. The experimental results have
convincingly demonstrated the feasibility of the developed Fig. 4. Time responses of and by the proposed
technique. method

1926 │ J Electr Eng Technol.2017; 12(1): 1921-718

 Wook Chang, Ji Hyun Moon and Ho Jae Lee

Appendix control of nonlinear systems with parametric un-

Reminding of (11), the chain rule gives
Integrating the foregoing derivative with respect to
$\theta$, we have
certainties,” IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Syst., vol. 9, no. 2, pp.
369-379, 2001.
[3] W. Chang, J. B. Park, Y. H. Joo, and G. Chen, “Design
of robust fuzzy-model-based controller with sliding
mode control for SISO nonlinear systems,” Fuzzy
Sets Syst., vol. 125, pp. 1-22, 2002.
[4] H. J. Lee and D. W. Kim, “Decentralized load-
frequency control of large-scale nonlinear power
systems: Fuzzy overlapping approach,” J. Electr. Eng.
Tech., vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 436-442, 2012.
[5] K.-Y. Lian and J.-J. Liou, “Output tracking control
for fuzzy systems via output feedback design,” IEEE
Trans. Fuzzy Syst., vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 628-639, Oct.
2006.
[6] K. Kiriakidis, “Fuzzy model-based control of com-
plex plants,” IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Syst., vol. 6, no. 4,
pp. 517-529, 1998.
[7] Q. Consulting, 2D Helicopter Experiment, 1998.

g
[8] M. Hernandez-Gonzalez, A. Alanis, and E. Hernandez-
Vargas, “Decentralized discrete-time neural control

in [9]
for a quanser 2-DOF helicopter,” Appl. Soft Comput.,
vol. 12, no. 8, pp. 2462-2469, 2012.
B. Zhu, “Nonlinear adaptive neural network control
ad
for a model-scaled unmanned helicopter,” Nonlinear
Dyn., vol. 78, no. 3, pp. 1695-1708, Jul 2014.
[10] K. Tanaka and H. O. Wang, Fuzzy Control Systems
Design and Analysis : A Linear Matrix Inequality
re

Approach. New York: Wiley, 2001.

[11] J. A. Meda-Campaña and B. Castillo-Toledo, “Exact
output regulation for nonlinear systems described by
f

Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy models,” IEEE Trans. Fuzzy

oo

Syst., vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 235-247, 2012.

[12] H. J. Lee, J. B. Park, and Y. H. Joo, “Comments on
“Output tracking and regulation of nonlinear system
based on Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model,” IEEE Trans.
Pr

Syst., Man, Cybern. B, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 521-523,

Acknowledgements
This research was supported by Basic Science Research
Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea
(NRF) funded by the Korea government (Ministry of Science,
ICT & Future Planning) (No. 2014R1A2A2A01005664).
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Birkhäuser, 2003.
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http://www.jeet.or.kr │ 1927
 Fuzzy Model-Based Output-Tracking Control for 2 Degree-of-Freedom Helicopter

Wook Chang He received his B.S.,

M.S., and Ph. D. degrees form the
Department of Electrical and Elec-
tronic Engineering, Yonsei University,
Seoul, Korea, in 1994, 1996, and 2001,
respectively. In 2001, he was a member
of research staff at Samsung Advanced
Institute of Technology. In 2010, he
founded Sensible UI and successfully sold it to a UK
company in 2012. In 2014, he founded another company
Kitronyx, Inc. where he has been working as a Chief
Executive Officer. His research interests include fuzzy
control systems, digital redesign, multi-touch technologies,
and pressure sensing technologies.

Ji Hyun Moon He received his B.S.

and M.S. degrees from the Department
of Electronic Engineering, Inha Uni-

g
versity, Incheon, Korea, in 2012, 2014,
respectively. He is currently pursuing a
Ph.D. degree at the same university.
His research interests include fuzzy
control systems, multi-agent systems in
ad
and an underwater glider, and their applications.

Ho Jae Lee He received his B.S., M.S.,

re

and Ph. D. degrees from the Department

of Electrical and Electronic Engin-
eering, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea,
f

in 1998, 2000, and 2004, respectively.

oo

In 2005, he was a Visiting Assistant

Professor with the Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Houston, Houston, TX. Since 2006, he has
Pr

been with the School of Electronic Engineering, Inha

University, Incheon, Korea, where he is currently an
Associate Professor. His research interests include fuzzy
control systems, hybrid dynamical systems, large-scale
systems, and digital redesign.

1928 │ J Electr Eng Technol.2017; 12(1): 1921-718