This thesis lays the foundations for the development of a small autonomous coaxial helicopter. This is an helicopter with two propellers mounted on the same axis and revolving in opposite directions. To steer the helicopter, this thesis proposes a mechanism that moves the helicopter's centre of mass. Although such a mechanism has already been investigated experimentally in the literature, it has never been rigorously modeled, and a theoretical analysis has never been performed. This thesis, for the first time, presents an accurate mathematical model of the coaxial helicopter which takes into account the gyroscopic effects of the rotors, the reaction forces and torques exerted by the moving mass actuator on the helicopter body, and the fact that the inertia of the helicopter is time-varying. A nonlinear controller is rigorously derived which makes the helicopter hover at desired positions in three-space. A number of physical prototypes are discussed. None of them is capable of autonomous flight yet, but the experimental and simulation results provide reassurances that the proposed methodology is viable.
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