A State Observer-Based Fractional-Order Approach for Trajectory Tracking and Attitude Control of A Quadrotor

Abstract

With the expanding utility base of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), there comes a strong need for dedicated research towards effective control strategies for these aircraft. This paper presents a feedback control scheme for the trajectory tracking and flight control problem for quadrotor-type UAVs. In particular, a robust fractional-order sliding mode control (FOSMC) scheme based on a state observer approach, consisting of position tracking and an attitude control strategy, is proposed. The basic idea behind choosing the state observer technique is to prevent the chattering phenomenon in this highly non-linear and under-actuated dynamic structure, and preserve the robustness and finite time reachability properties of Sliding Mode controllers. The stability of the proposed control law is proved using Lyapunov’s theorem. Furthermore, a detailed performance analysis of the proposed method is presented in comparison to the existing control algorithms from the recent literature. The obtained results are found promising.

KEYWORDS:

• Fractional-order control
• Lyapunov stability
• Quadrotor
• Sliding mode control
• State observer
• Trajectory tracking
• Unmanned aerial vehicles

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ashutosh Bist

Ashutosh Bist received the BTech degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi, in 2014 and the ME degree in instrumentation and control engineering from Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, in 2017. He has been pursuing PhD degree from the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology since 2017. His research interests include non-linear control, robust control, adaptive control and its application to aerial robots. Email: [email protected]

Swati Sondhi

Swati Sondhi obtained PhD in the area of control systems from the Electrical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India. She is currently working as an assistant professor at Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, Punjab, India. Her research interests include non-linear control, robust control, adaptive control and its application to aerial robots. Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]