Research on Relative Position Control of Ducking Phase for Helicopter Aerial Refueling

For conventional helicopters, the combat radius is restricted to a certain extent by the limitations of the tank capacity and the maximum takeoff weight. Aerial refueling can expand the combat radius of helicopter, so helicopter aerial refueling technology has become one of the key areas of research in various countries. The docking process is the key to the implementation of aerial refueling, which is related to the successful completion of aerial refueling task. Based on the linearized model of helicopter with small disturbances, the control strategy during the docking stage is designed in this paper, and then the aerial refueling position control system is designed. Finally, in order to improve the control precision of position control system, the flight control law based on LQR is designed and simulation experiments are carried out. The simulation results show that the position control system can successfully achieve the control of the relative distance between the tanker and receiver in the docking stage.