CONTROL DESIGN FOR UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES WITH FOUR ROTORS

Abstract

Altitude and attitude controlled quadcopter model is used for the behavior and control algorithm testing, before the implementation on the experimental setup. The main objective is the control system design which will achieve good task performance in the combination with the quadcopter dynamic model. Also, for the control model, it is important to be relatively easy to modify for the use of other control algorithms and to be easy to implement on the experimental setup. At the beginning of this article, the control system design process is described. Quadcopter dynamics equations are simplified by applying several assumptions and in that form are used for the controller synthesis. Quadcopter control system is split into inner and outer control loop because the quadcopter is underactuated system which means that the direct control of all of the degrees of freedom is not possible. In the second part, the PI-D control algorithm is described which is applied on the simplified quadcopter dynamic model. The inner loop controls roll, pitch and yaw angles together with the quadcopter altitude. Its outputs are four control variables. Outer loop controls quadcopter X and Y position. Its outputs are roll and pitch desired angles. Regulated quadcopter model behavior is shown for the three types of task. First, the achieving of position in space is simulated. Second, the reference trajectory tracking is shown. Last task shown is the reference trajectory tracking with added periodical disturbances. Simulations show bounded positions error of the regulated quadcopter system using PI-D controller for the different types of tasks performed under different conditions.

Keywords

• quadcopter
• control design
• inner control loop
• outer control loop
• PI-D controller