Adaptive-optimal MIMO nonsingular terminal sliding mode control of twin-rotor helicopter system: meta-heuristics and super-twisting based control approach

This research proposes a novel hybrid control technique based on nonsingular terminal sliding mode (NTSM) control, metaheuristic optimization algorithms and adaptive super-twisting based on Lyapunov stability analysis for controlling Quanser aero simulator helicopter. Firstly, the NTSM and NTSM super twisting (NTSTW) controllers are designed followed by optimization of the designed controllers using grey wolf optimizer (GWO), whale optimization algorithm (WOA), salp swarm algorithm (SSA) and ant lion optimizer (ALO). Qualitative and quantitative comparisons among the results obtained from optimized controllers are then thoroughly investigated. Simulation results confirmed that the optimized NTSTW (O-NTSTW) based on GWO demonstrated overperformance compared with other controllers. In order to further improve its performance while ensuring robustness, this controller is hybridized with an adaptive Lyapunov super-twisting algorithm resulting in a novel controller named as adaptive O-NTSTW (AO-NTSTW). Visualization using ROS-Gazebo is done while validating AO-NTSTW and O-NTSTW. Simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness and the superiority of AO-NTSTW compared to O-NTSTW.