题 目：Research and Development of Unmanned Helicopter Systems

报告人：Ben M. Chen, IEEE Fellow, Professor of National University of Singapore

时 间：5月26日（周二）9：30

地 点：嘉定校区电信楼309

欢迎参加！

数学系、电子与信息工程学院

2009-5-15

Abstract of the talk…

In recent years, research and development of unmanned vehicles has gained much attention

in the academic and military communities worldwide. Objects like unmanned aircraft,

underwater exploiters, satellites and intelligent robotics are widely investigated as they

have potential applications in both military and civil domains. They are developed to be

capable of working autonomously without human pilot. Challenge is that they need to deal

with various situations arisen in much complicated and uncertain environment, such as

unexpected obstacles, enemies attacking and device failures. Besides, they are required to

communicate with technical personnel in the ground station. Consideration on a wide range

of factors needs to be taken. Control systems for the unmanned vehicles are required to

integrate not only basic input-output control laws, but also high-level functionalities for decision making and task scheduling. Software systems for unmanned

vehicles are required to perform tasks from hardware driving to the management of device

operation, and from traditional inputoutput control law implementation to task scheduling

and event disposal.

In this talk, we aim to explore the research and development of a full functional UAV

(unmanned aerial vehicle) helicopter system, which consists of a smallscale basic helicopter

with all necessary accessories onboard and a ground station. The UAV helicopter system is

an integration of advanced technologies developed in communications, computing and

control areas. It is an excellent test bed for testing and implementing modern control

techniques. It is a very challenging process. The aerodynamics of smallscale helicopter is

similar to its fullscale counterpart but owns some unique characteristics such as the

utilization of stabilizer bar and higher main/tail rotors rotation speed. Besides these, the

strict limitation on payload also increases the difficulty on upgrading a small scale helicopter

to a UAV with full capacities. Based on its various characteristics and limitations, a light-weight but effective onboard computer system with corresponding onboard/ground software

should be carefully designed to realize the system identification and automatic flight

requirements. These issues will be addressed in detail in the talk. Research on utilizing the

system for accomplishing ground target tracking and attacking, flight formation, and future

research directions on the development of urban and indoor navigation systems as well as

precision landing systems on moving platforms will be highlighted.

About the speaker…

Ben M. Chen was born in Fujian, China, in 1963, received his B.S. degree in mathematics and

computer science from Xiamen University, Xiamen, China, in 1983, M.S. degree in electrical

engineering from Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington, USA, in 1988, and Ph.D. degree

in electrical & computer engineering from Washington State University, Pullman, Washington,

USA, in 1991. He was a software engineer in SouthChina Computer Corporation, Guangzhou,

China, from 1983 to 1986, and was an assistant professor from 1992 to 1993 in Department

of Electrical Engineering, State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA. Since August

1993, he has been with Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National

University of Singapore, where he is currently a full professor. His current research interests

are in robust control, systems theory, control applications, the development of unmanned

helicopter systems and financial market modeling.

He is the author/coauthor of over 250 research articles in international journals and

conference proceedings, and 7 research monographs including Linear Systems Theory

(Birkhauser, Boston, 2004), Robust and H¥ Control (Springer, New York, 2000) and Hard

Disk Drive Servo Systems (Springer, New York, 1st Ed., 2002; 2nd Ed., 2006). He holds

associate editor appointments with several international journals including IEEE

Transactions on Automatic Control, Automatica, and Systems & Control Letters. He was the

recipient of the Best Poster Paper Award at the 2nd Asian Control Conference, Seoul,

Korea (1997); University Researcher Award, National University of Singapore (2000);

Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award, Institution of Engineers, Singapore (2001);

Temasek Young Investigator Award, Defence Science and Technology Agency, Singapore

(2003); Best Industrial Control Application Prize at the 5th Asian Control Conference,

Melbourne, Australia (2004); and elected to a Fellow of IEEE (2007).