An Improved Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion Method for Altitude and Attitude Control of Nano Quad-Rotors under Persistent Uncertainties

Nonlinear dynamic inversion(NDI)has been applied to the control law design of quad-rotors mainly thanks to its good robustness and simplicity of parameter tuning.However,the weakness of relying on accurate model greatly restrains its application on quad-rotors,especially nano quad-rotors(NQRs).NQRs are easy to be influenced by uncertainties such as model uncertainties(mainly from complicated aerodynamic interferences,strong coupling in roll-pitch-yaw channels and inaccurate aerodynamic prediction of rotors)and external uncertainties(mainly from winds or gusts),particularly persistent ones.Therefore,developing accurate model for altitude and attitude control of NQRs is difficult.To solve this problem,in this paper,an improved nonlinear dynamic inversion(INDI)method is developed,which can reject the above-mentioned uncertainties by estimating them and then counteracting in real time using linear extended state observer(LESO).Comparison with the traditional NDI(TNDI)method was carried out numerically,and the results show that,in coping with persistent uncertainties,the INDI-based method presents significant superiority.

Aerodynamic-Parameter Identification and Attitude Control of Quad-Rotor Model with CIFER and Adaptive LADRC

Current research on quadrotor modeling mainly focuses on theoretical analysis methods and experimental methods,which have problems such as weak adaptability to the environment,high test costs,and long durations.Additionally,the PID controller,which is currently widely used in quadrotors,requires improvement in anti-interference.Therefore,the aforementioned research has considerable practical significance for the modeling and controller design of quadrotors with strong coupling and nonlinear characteristics.In the present research,an aerodynamic-parameter estimation method and an adaptive attitude control method based on the linear active disturbance rejection controller(LADRC)are designed separately.First,the motion model,dynamics model,and control allocation model of the quad-rotor are established according to the aerodynamic theory and Newton-Euler equations.Next,a more accurate attitude model of the quad-rotor is obtained by using a tool called CIFER to identify the aerodynamic parameters with large uncertainties in the frequency domain.Then,an adaptive attitude decoupling controller based on the LADRC is designed to solve the problem of the poor anti-interference ability of the quad-rotor and adjust the key control parameter b0 automatically according to the change in the moment of inertia in real time.Finally,the proposed approach is verified on a semi-physical simulation platform,and it increases the tracking speed and accuracy of the controller,as well as the anti-disturbance performance and robustness of the control system.This paper proposes an effective aerodynamic-parameter identification method using CIFER and an adaptive attitude decoupling controller with a sufficient anti-interference ability.

Dynamic affine formation control of networked under-actuated quad-rotor UAVs with three-dimensional patterns

This paper focuses on the solution to the dynamic affine formation control problem for multiple networked underactuated quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)to achieve a configuration that preserves collinearity and ratios of distances for a target configuration.In particular,it is investigated that the quad-rotor UAVs are steered to track a reference linear velocity while maintaining a desired three-dimensional target formation.Firstly,by integrating the properties of the affine transformation and the stress matrix,the design of the target formation is convenient and applicable for various three-dimensional geometric patterns.Secondly,a distributed control method is proposed under a hierarchical framework.By introducing an intermediary control input for each quad-rotor UAV in the position loop,the necessary thrust input and the desired attitude are extracted.In the attitude loop,the desired attitude represented by the unit quaternion is tracked by the designed torque input.Both conditions of linear velocity unavailability and mutual collision avoidance are also tackled.In terms of Lyapunov theory,it is prooved that the overall closed-loop error system is asymptotically stable.Finally,two illustrative examples are simulated to validate the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical results.

H _ index based fault estimation for micro quad-rotor

Taking the attitude control system of micro quad-rotor as a research object, a design scheme of fault estimator based on generalized Kalman-Yakubovic-Popov （GKYP） lemma is put forward to deal with the problem of estimating multiple actuators malfunctions with couplings. Using an H_index and an appropriate algorithm, the goal of weakening the coupling can be achieved by limiting the fault frequency to a certain range, then different kinds of actuator faults can be estimated correctly. The simulations demonstrate the reliability and validity of the proposed method.

Inverse Model Control for a Quad-rotor Aircraft Using TS-fuzzy Support Vector Regression

An inverse model control based on TS-fuzzy support vector regression( TS-fuzzy SVR) for a quadrotor aircraft is developed. The TS-kernel is the product of linear combination of input and a cluster of output corresponding to a cluster of TS-type fuzzy rules. The output of TS-fuzzy SVR is a linear weighted sum of the TSkernels. The dynamical model of the quad-rotor aircraft is derived. A new control scheme combined with TSfuzzy SVR inverse model control and PID control is presented so that the TS-fuzzy SVR inverse model control enhances capabilities of disturbance rejection and the robustness while the PID control enhances fast responsiveness and reliability of the system. Simulation results show the capabilities of the developed control for the attitude system of quad-rotor aircraft.

Predictive Control of Quad-Rotor Delivering Unknown Time-Varying Payloads Based upon Extended State Observer

In this paper, robust control problem is addressed for quad-rotor delivering unknown time-varying payloads. Firstly, the model of a quad-rotor carrying payloads is built. Dynamics of the payloads are treated as disturbances and added into the model of the quad-rotor. Secondly, to enhance system robust-ness, the extended state observer (ESO) is applied to estimate the disturbances from the payloads for feedback compensation. Then a type of predictive controller targeting multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) system is developed to degrade the influences caused by sudden changes from load-ing/dropping of the payloads. Finally, by making comparison with the con-ventional cascade proportional-integral-derivative (CPID) and the sliding mode control (SMC) approaches, superiority of the scheme developed is va-lidated. The simulation results indicate that the CPID method shows poor performance on attitude stabilization and the SMC shows input chattering phenomenon even it can achieve satisfied control performances.

A Second-Order Sliding Mode Controller of Quad-Rotor UAV Based on PID Sliding Mode Surface with Unbalanced Load

Quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)is a typical multiple-input-multiple-output underactuated system with couplings and nonlinearity.Usually,the flying environment is very complex,so that it is impossible for the UAV to avoid effects derived from disturbances and uncertainties.In order to improve the reliability of flight control,we established the dynamic model of quad-rotor UAV by Newton-Euler equation in unbalanced load conditions.Considering external disturbances in the attitude,a second-order sliding mode controller was designed with PID sliding mode surface and Extended State Observer(ESO).The simulation experiments have got good control performance,illustrating the effectiveness of our controller.Meanwhile,the controller was implemented in a quadrotor UAV,which carried a pan-tilt camera for aerial photography.The actual flight experiments proved that this paper dealt with the high stabilization flight control problem for the quad-rotor UAV,which laid a good foundation for autonomous flight of the UAV.

Adaptive Backstepping Sliding Mode Trajectory Tracking Control for a Quad-rotor

A quad-rotor aircraft is an under-actuated,strongly coupled nonlinear system with parameter uncertainty and un-modeled disturbance.In order to make the aircraft track the desired trajectory,a nested double-loops control system is adopted in this paper.A position error proportional-derivative(PD) controller is designed as the outer-loop controller based on the coupling action between rotational and translational movement,and an adaptive backstepping sliding mode control algorithm is used to stabilize the attitude.Finally,both the numerical simulation and prototype experiment are utilized to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control system.

Formation control of quad-rotor UAV via PIO

In this article, the formation control of quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) via pigeon inspired optimization(PIO) is designed. The nonlinear mathematical model of the quad-rotor UAV is used by applying algebraic graph theory and matrix analysis. A high order consistent formation control algorithm with fixed control topology is designed by using a position deviation matrix to describe its formation. To control the attitude of quad-rotor UAVs, it is difficult to obtain a set of optimal solutions, and hence a PIO based algorithm with variable weight hybridization is proposed. The algorithm is mainly composed of two parts. First, according to the distance between the particles in the iterative process, the inertia weight is dynamically changed,and the coefficient is adjusted to control the degree of influence on its inertia weight. Second, the overall scenario is designed by using MATLAB based simulations which show that the formation control of the quad-rotor UAV is achieved with the help of PIO.

Fractional order adaptive robust formation control of multiple quad-rotor UAVs with parametric uncertainties and wind disturbances

In recent times,multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)are being widely utilized in several areas of applications such as agriculture,surveillance,disaster management,search and rescue operations.Degree of robustness of applied control schemes determines how accurate a swarm of UAVs accomplish group tasks.Formation and trajectory tracking controllers are required for the swarm of multiple UAVs.Factors like external environmental effects,parametric uncertainties and wind gusts make the controller design process as a challenging task.This article proposes fractional order formation and trajectory tacking controllers for multiple quad-rotors using Super Twisting Sliding Mode Control(STSMC)technique.To compensate the effects of the disturbances due to parametric uncertainties and wind gusts,Lyapunov function based adaptive controllers are formulated.Moreover,Lyapunov theorem is used to guarantee the stability of the proposed controllers.Three types of controllers,namely fixed gain STSMC and fractional order Adaptive Super Twisting Sliding Mode Control(ASTSMC)methods are tested for the swarm of UAVs by performing the numerical simulations in MATLAB/Simulink environment.From the presented results,it is verified that in presence of wind disturbances and parametric uncertainties,the proposed fractional order ASTSMC technique showed improved robustness as compared to the fixed gain STSMC and integer order ASTSMC.

Backstepping sliding mode tracking control of quad-rotor under input saturation

Purpose–The quad-rotor is an under-actuation,strong coupled nonlinear system with parameters uncertainty,unmodeled disturbance and drive capability boundedness.The purpose of the paper is to design a flight control system to regulate the aircraft track the desired trajectory and keep the attitude angles stable on account of these issues.Design/methodology/approach–Considering the dynamics of a quad-rotor,the closed-loop flight control system is divided into two nested loops:the translational outer-loop and the attitude inner-loop.In the outer-loop,the translational controller,which exports the desired attitude angles to the inner-loop,is designed based on bounded control technique.In consideration of the influence of uncertain rotational inertia and external disturbance,the backstepping sliding mode approach with adaptive gains is used in the inner-loop.The switching control strategy based on the sign functions of sliding surface is introduced into the design procedure with respect to the input saturation.Findings–The validity of the proposed flight control system was verified through numerical simulation and prototype flight experiment in this paper.Furthermore,with relation to the flying,the motor speed is kept in the predetermined scope.Originality/value–This article introduces a new flight control system designed for a quad-rotor.