Development of an Attitude Control System For a Large Scale Multicopter VTOL Aircraft

Multicopter type helicopters have become prevalent in the past ten years with applications in military, academia, commercial, and recreational use. These aircraft benefit from their inherent simplicity, robust design, and ease of control. This paper discusses the design of an attitude control system for a large-scale gas powered multicopter and the challenges overcome in the development of the system. A nonlinear model was developed for simulation purposes and a simplified linear model was developed for control system design. The resulting control system architecture and design was implemented and successfully tested on an eight-engine prototype aircraft with 880 horsepower and a max gross weight of 4,400 lb.