Development of a Controller Using the Generalized Minimum Variance Algorithm for a Twin Rotor Mimic System (TRMS)

The study of unmanned vehicles (UAV) is booming, due to its flexible structure, easy manufacturing and multiple applications, so it is important to start using controllers that ensure minimum power consumption prolonging its working time, additional in this type of system are multiple disturbances such as tracking and random, or the simultaneous existence of disturbances between the actuator and the controlled object. This work describes how the generalized minimum variance control (GMVC) tries to reduce the effect of disturbances at the output or changes in the reference of a system similar to a UAV as is the twin-rotor system (TRMS), trying to have a strengthening effect in the presence of noise improving stability for the desired reference. The GMVC has theoretically demonstrated a good tracking and regulation performance, which is corroborated in the present work where its performance analysis in a real system is carried out. The performance of the GMVC is compared to a conventional PID controller to perform a Benchmark through simulations and field tests. The comparative analysis is statistical using the Wilcoxon test and using performance criteria based on the error as the integral squared error (ISE), which will also determine whether the controller presents a decrease in energy consumption in the control action. The results are interesting and promising from the point of view of control.