Event‐Triggered Trajectory Tracking Control for Quadrotor UAVs Subject to External Disturbances

• Published in: International journal of robust and nonlinear control Vol. 35; no. 11; pp. 4669 - 4685
• Main Authors: Zhao, Peng, Bao, Zean, Liu, Xinzhi, Zhang, Jingyao, Cai, Kaiquan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 25.07.2025; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Control theory; Disturbances; Dynamic control; event‐triggered control; external disturbances; internal model; Internal model principle; Linear systems; quadrotor UAVs; Robust control; Subsystems; Tracking control; Tracking errors; Unmanned aerial vehicles
• ISSN: 1049-8923; 1099-1239
• DOI: 10.1002/rnc.7933

ABSTRACT This article investigates the trajectory tracking control problem for quadrotor UAVs using the dynamic event‐triggered control approach. Unlike existing results, the dynamic event‐triggered control strategy proposed in this work ensures that the trajectory tracking error of quadrotor UAVs converges to zero asymptotically for a class of external disturbances. Specifically, an event‐triggered mechanism is introduced in the position loop to reduce the resource transmission consumption. To address the non‐differentiable nature of the event‐triggered signal, a fourth‐order linear system model for the position loop is derived, ensuring the existence of a twice‐differentiable acceleration reference which is essential for the attitude loop. Subsequently, based on the internal model principle, we develop a class of dynamic event‐triggered control strategies with dynamic triggering mechanisms. Furthermore, to handle the challenges posed by the unknown parameters and external perturbations within the attitude‐loop subsystem, a robust adaptive dynamic control law is implemented based on the attitude rotation matrix. Rigorous Lyapunov analysis demonstrates that the overall control approach ensures asymptotic stability of the closed‐loop system. Finally, we verify the effectiveness and robustness of the controller through numerical simulations.