Design and implimentation of a supervisory safety controller for a 3DOF helicopter

Abstract

This research effort presents the design and implementation of a supervisory controller for a 3DOF helicopter. This safety critical system is used in undergraduate laboratories in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT. There already exists a framework for designing a supervisory safety controller for motions about one axis. It is based on an analytical description of the safety region in state space. However, this framework cannot be easily extended to more complicated systems such as a 3DOF helicopter. In this thesis we present a different approach which uses a real-time simulation of linearized plant dynamics with a feedback law to ensure the system's safety. We describe the development of the system model, the design and implementation of the supervisory safety controller, integration of the safety controller as part of a remote laboratory and its evaluation based on its performance during laboratory exercises.