Modeling and Identification of Hover Flight Dynamics for NASA’s Mars Helicopter

摘要

As part of the upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission, NASA is planning to include an autonomous helicopter todemonstrate the feasibility and utility of using helicopters for Mars exploration. Helicopter flight on Mars ischallenging due to the extremely thin atmosphere, which is only partially offset by a reduction in gravity. Thispaper focuses on flight dynamics and controllability issues for theMars Helicopter: in particular, the areas in which thedynamics differs fromtypical behavior on Earth. The paper discusses insights gained frommodeling and simulation, aswell as system identification performed with a test vehicle in the relevant atmospheric conditions, which culminated inthe first demonstration of controlled helicopter flight in Martian atmospheric conditions in May 2016.