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The 3DOF helicopter simulator, which has 3 degrees of freedom in rotation, is a new educational product developed by Googol Technology. It is not only of great value in the field of aviation and space flight research, but also ideal to evaluate feedback strategies, such as PID, LQR, H infinity, fuzzy, neural net - any one you wish to implement. As one of the newly recommended products, its hardware system is matched with a textbook which covers classical control, modern control and dynamic modelling experiments in details, so it offers the students and researchers in the fields of automation and mechatronics a unique opportunity to control the pitch and yaw of a simplified helicopter.
The 3DOF helicopter simulator consists of a pedestal upon which a long arm is mounted. The arm carries the helicopter body on one end and a counterweight on the other. The arm can also tilt about an elevation axis as well as swivel about a vertical (travel) axis. Optical encoders mounted on these axes allow for measuring the elevation and travel of the arm. The helicopter body mounted at the end of the arm is free to pitch around the pitch axis. The pitch angle is measured via a third encoder.
Two motors with propellers mounted on the helicopter body can generate a force proportional to the voltage applied to the motors. The force generated by the propellers causes the helicopter body to lift off the ground. The counterweight can reduce the power requirements on the motors; it is adjusted so that the effective mass of the body is correct. All electrical signals to and from the arm are transmitted via a slip-ring in order to eliminate the possibility of tangled wires and reduce the amount of friction.
The hardware platform is based on a PC and DSP-based motion controller. A comprehensive experiment kit covers dynamic modelling, classic control experiments, modern control experiments, optimized control experiments and intelligent control experiments. Users can select a relevant algorithm for the experiment and teaching needs of various course.