Combined of Lyapunov-stable and active disturbance rejection control for the path following of a small unmanned aerial vehicle. (27th March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chen, Yang; Liang, Jianhong; Wang, Chaolei; Zhang, Yicheng
• Is Part Of: International journal of advanced robotic systems. Volume 14:Number 2(2017:Mar./Apr.)
• Publication Date: 2017-03-27
• Subjects: Path following -- small unmanned aerial vehicle -- Lyapunov stability -- ADRC; Robotics -- Periodicals; Robotics; Periodicals; 629.892
• DOI: 10.1177/1729881417699150
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1729-8806

Abstract

This article proposes a composite path following controller that allows the small fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle to follow a predefined path. Assuming that the vehicle is equipped with an autopilot for altitude and airspeed maintained well, the controller design adopts the hierarchical control structure. With the inner-loop controller design based on the notion of active disturbance rejection control which will respond to the desired roll angle command, the core part of the outer-loop controller is designed based on Lyapunov stability theorem to generate the desired course rate for the straight-line paths. The bank to turn maneuver is used to transform the desired course rate to the desired roll angle command. Both the hardware-in-the-loop simulation in the X-Plane simulator and actual experimental flight tests have been successfully achieved, which verified the effectiveness of the proposed method.