How Professors Around the World Are Using Quanser’s 3 DOF Helicopter

Professors all around the globe have made the Quanser 3 DOF Helicopter an essential part of their control labs. It is being used as a hands-on, undergraduate teaching experiment, as the basis of a student design project, or as an integral part of aerospace research. Quite often, it’s as all three.

What makes the 3 DOF Helicopter a popular choice? First of course is its fundamental ability to help design a control system that regulates the elevation and travel of a 3 DOF Helicopter. Beyond that, a number of professors have told us they appreciate the high quality of the product itself. Others like how easily it integrates with a large family of Quanser peripherals. Still others value its ability to work seamlessly in either MATLAB®/Simulink® or LabVIEW™ environments. Ultimately, the 3 DOF Helicopter serves as an efficient, time-saving solution that enhances professors’ teaching and research.

Here’s a glimpse at what some professors are doing with their Quanser 3 DOF Helicopter.

Zhejiang University: Wireless network control research

Dr. He Sun is with the Institute of Industrial Process Control in the Department of Control Science and Engineering at Zhdejiang University.

He is using the Quanser 3 DOF Helicopter as a research tool, as are several other graduate and Ph.D. students. Dr. Sun is conducting wireless network control research, that is, receiving the helicopter's state and sending the control signal by wireless channel.

Dr. Sun lists several reasons for choosing to work with Quanser products. He is very pleased with the quality of Quanser service and the Quanser representatives that provide it. He finds the products themselves are high quality as well, and saved him valuable research time. Dr. Sun is thinking about recommending Quanser solutions to colleagues who are conducting research in vibration detection and control.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University: Flight Control Research

A member of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Professor Liu Shiqian’s main research work involves flight control, vision control and unmanned aerial vehicles. To that end he uses a number of Quanser aerospace products.

They include the Quanser 3 DOF Helicopter, QPID terminal board, QUARC rapid prototyping software, and VoltPAQ amplifiers. He also plans to use the Quanser Qball UAV for his research and teaching course next year. Professor Shiqian relies on a wide range of Quanser hardware and software because he finds them convenient and efficient in conducting successful experiments.

Ryerson University: Teaching a 4^th Year Avionics Design Project

As a research associate in Ryerson University’s Department of Aerospace Engineering, Primoz Cresnik focuses on such areas as Space Vehicle Dynamics and Satellite Control Systems, Aircraft Flight Performance and Avionics Systems.

Within the department, he and his associates take advantage of a wide range of Quanser hardware and software to help them teach and do research. The 3 DOF Helicopter, for example, is used to help teach a fourth year Avionics design project.

“In the Avionics course we use the 3 DOF Helicopters, power amplifiers, Q8 data acquisition boards”, says Cresnik. He adds, “for software, we use Quanser’s QUARC (rapid prototyping software) with MATLAB®/Simulink® for both courses.“

The 3 DOF Helicopter and other Quanser products were selected by Cresnik’s department because they offer them several advantages: they get their projects up and running quickly; QUARC rapid prototyping software supports their MATLAB®/Simulink® orientation; the hardware is durable and the service they receive is friendly and helpful.

Bristol University: A Video on Using the 3 DOF Helicopter for Control Coursework

The following is a video produced by Dr. Arthur Richards, Senior Lecturer in Dynamics and Control, Aerospace Engineering Department, University of Bristol, UK. It introduces his students to control coursework using the Quanser 3 DOF Helicopter.

View the video: