Trajectory tracking of a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) via attitude and position control

Download
2014
Suiçmez, Emre Can
In this thesis, trajectory tracking of a quadrotor UAV is obtained by controlling attitude and position of the quadrotor simultaneously. Two independent control methods are used to track desired trajectories accurately. One of these methods is a nonlinear control approach called as "backstepping control". The other method is a more unique optimal control approach called as "Linear Quadratic Tracking(LQT)". In addition, fixed-gain LQR controller which is widely used in literature is also used for comparison analysis. First, nonlinear dynamic model of quadrotor is obtained by using Newton’s equations of motion. Then, backstepping controller is obtained in three steps and simulation model of the backstepping controller is formed. On the other hand, time-varying optimal control gains of LQT controller are found offline by solving matrix difference Riccati equation(DRE) backwards in time. Then, LQT controller is modeled by using time-varying optimal control gains as a state feedback controller. Several trajectories to be followed are generated in MATLAB and sent into the simulation models as inputs. Finally, backstepping, LQT and LQR controllers are simulated in MATLAB/Simulink environment, for inital validation. Several trajectories are tried to be followed by each controller and simulation results of controllers are compared to each other. It is observed that, LQT controller could track relatively complex trajectories more accurately and efficiently compared to backstepping and LQR controllers. Other advantageous and disadvantageous characteristics of each control method are also analyzed in details. In this thesis, "AscTech Hummingbird" quadrotor manufactured by Ascending Technologies is used. "AscTech Hummingbird" quadrotor gives opportunity to test high level control algorithms generated in MATLAB/Simulink environment. Therefore, complete validation of controllers obtained in this thesis could be performed by real time experiments in future.

Suggestions

Path planning and coordinated guidance of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles
Ergezer, Halit; Leblebicioğlu, Mehmet Kemal; Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (2013)
In this thesis, both off-line and online coordinated path planning for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are studied. These problems have emerged due to the increasing needs for UAVs in both military and civil applications. To accomplish a certain objective, both the path planning for a single UAV and for multiple UAVs have been examined. Although there are previous studies in this field, we focus on maximizing the collected information instead of minimizing the total mission time. Studies carried out in this...
System identification using flight test data
Şimşek, Orkun; Tekinalp, Ozan; Department of Aerospace Engineering (2014)
In this study, a linear model of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is developed by using frequency domain system identification methods. The data used in the identification methods are obtained by performing flight tests. To obtain appropriate flight test data for identification process, flight test maneuvers are designed. These flight test data are used in two main frequency domain system identification methods, namely, transfer function modeling and state space modeling. The linear models obtained by using...
Real time unmanned air vehicle routing
Karabay, Nail; Köksalan, Murat; Tezcaner Öztürk, Diclehan; Department of Industrial Engineering (2018)
In this thesis, we study real-time routing of an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) in a twodimensional dynamic environment. The UAV starts from a base point, visits all targets and returns to the base point, while all targets change their locations during the mission period. We find the best route for the route planner (RP) considering two objectives; minimization of distance and minimization of radar detection threat. We develop a real-time algorithm to find the UAV’s most preferred route for a RP who has an unde...
High by-pass turbofan engines aerothermodynamic design and optimization
Arayibi, Segun; Tekinalp, Ozan; Department of Aerospace Engineering (2014)
In this thesis, a leader-follower approach is employed to make two unmanned aircrafts fly in a fixed geometrical formation. The first aircraft in the formation is designated as leader and the second is treated as the follower. The leader maintains a prescribed trajectory while the follower tracks and maintains a fixed relative distance from its leader. Since the associated kinematic equations are nonlinear, the relative guidance of the follower using two nonlinear control approaches, the Lyapunov based cont...
Vision-aided landing for fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicle
Esin, Engin; Kutay, Ali Türker; Department of Aerospace Engineering (2016)
The aim of this thesis is to design an autoland system for fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to make auto landing by using position information calculated by image processing algorithms. With this ability, even if GPS is not available to be used, UAV still could make a safe automatic landing. Landing autopilot is aimed to keep UAV on a straight line with a constant flight path angle. Therefore, landing autopilot and computer vision methods are studied within the scope of this thesis. Also, to test de...
Citation Formats
E. C. Suiçmez, “Trajectory tracking of a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) via attitude and position control,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2014.