Fuzzy control allocation of a positionable rotor quadrotor based on log‐barrier optimization and propulsion system fault toleration

Abstract

Abstract Herein, a control system and a fault tolerance method for the rotor positionable quadrotor are proposed. Quadrotors that have a variable structure are made for different purposes. The rotor‐positionable quadrotor studied here, is a type of drone with a variable structure that has the ability to change the position of its rotors linearly along the axis of each arm. It can be seen that this capability can improve the drone robustness against disturbances and faults in comparison with regular quadcopters. Due to the over‐actuated dynamics of this type of quadrotor, the control allocation scheme based on log‐barrier optimization is employed to obtain the position and speed of each rotor. In this study, it is experimentally shown that rotor positioning not only reduces power consumption but also increases roll and pitch control inputs magnitude. Furthermore, when a fault occurs as a decrease in rotor speed, a fuzzy method is proposed to position the rotors which tolerates the fault. Finally, numerical simulations and experimental tests verified that rotor positioning can bring more robustness, reduction in power consumption, and fault tolerance in some rotor faults capabilities for quadrotors.

Keywords

• attitude control
• fuzzy logic
• intelligent control
• optimisation
• robot dynamics
• robot kinematics