Autonomous helicopter navigation during a tail rotor failure utilizing fuzzy logic

This paper presents a fuzzy controller capable of waypoint navigation under tail rotor failure on a small unmanned helicopter. Helicopters, or Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) vehicles, have shown great success in military, humanitarian, and commercial endeavors and their increased use as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have brought up great concerns as to the safety of these vehicles. The presented controller offers navigation possibilities to a situation that would typically results in an autorotation (emergency landing without power) or crashed vehicle. This is most beneficial in situations where the terrain, safety, or security do not allow for landing. The concepts, as well as the implementation, of the controller along with simulation experiments are presented.