Disturbance observer-based quadrotor attitude tracking control for aggressive maneuvers. (January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Castillo, Alberto; Sanz, Ricardo; Garcia, Pedro; Qiu, Wei; Wang, Hongda; Xu, Chao
• Is Part Of: Control engineering practice. Volume 82(2019)
• Page Start: 14
• Page End: 23
• Publication Date: 2019-01
• Subjects: Quadrotor -- Attitude control -- Quaternion -- Disturbance observer -- Mismatched disturbance -- Motor dynamics; Automatic control -- Periodicals; 629.89
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conengprac.2018.09.016
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0967-0661

Abstract

Abstract: In this paper, a disturbance observer-based quadrotor attitude controller for aggressive maneuvering is presented. The controller is made up of the cascade connection between two control-loops: an outer quaternion-based attitude control-loop and an inner disturbance observer-based angular velocity tracking control-loop. The disturbance observer is designed to estimate and compensate for the Coriolis term and the external disturbances. It is shown that, for fast maneuvers, the disturbance observer needs to take into account the motor dynamics. This allows to notably increase the observer bandwidth, leading to significant improvements in the disturbance rejection capabilities. The stability of the resulting closed-loop is analyzed. Also, different simulations and flight tests are carried out to validate the main results, showing an outstanding tracking performance when aggressive attitude maneuvers are being executed, even in the presence of strong disturbances such as suspended payloads. Highlights: Quadrotor attitude controller for fast maneuvers in disturbed environments. The controller compensates for the external disturbances and the Coriolis term. The rotor dynamics are considered in the disturbance observer design. Controller easy to implement and easy to tune. Extensive experiments show an outstanding tracking performance.