Robust motion control of quadrotors

• Published in: Journal of the Franklin Institute Vol. 351; no. 12; pp. 5494 - 5510
• Main Authors: Liu, Hao, Xi, Jianxiang, Zhong, Yisheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2014
• ISSN: 0016-0032; 1879-2693
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfranklin.2014.10.003

In this paper, the robust motion control problem is investigated for quadrotors. The proposed controller includes two parts: an attitude controller and a position controller. Both the attitude and position controllers include a nominal controller and a robust compensator. The robust compensators are introduced to restrain the influence of uncertainties such as nonlinear dynamics, coupling, parametric uncertainties, and external disturbances in the rotational and translational dynamics. It is proven that the position tracking errors are ultimately bounded and the boundaries can be specified by choosing controller parameters. Experimental results on the quadrotor demonstrate the effectiveness of the robust control method. •A robust motion control method is proposed for quadrotors.•Uncertainties in the rotational and translational dynamics can be restrained.•Position tracking errors are proven to converge to a priori set neighborhood.•Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.