Geometric Surface-Based Tracking Control of a Quadrotor UAV
For quadrotor control researchers, this work provides a novel control design with improved stability guarantees, though it is incremental as it extends existing geometric control methods.
The paper develops geometric surface-based tracking controllers for quadrotor UAVs that operate directly on the SE(3) manifold, achieving almost global stability with a region of attraction independent of position error. Simulations demonstrate effectiveness in aggressive maneuvers under disturbances and motor saturation.
New quadrotor UAV control algorithms are developed, based on nonlinear surfaces composed of tracking errors that evolve directly on the nonlinear configuration manifold, thus inherently including in the control design the nonlinear characteristics of the SE(3) configuration space. In particular, geometric surface-based controllers are developed and are shown, through rigorous stability proofs, to have desirable almost global closed loop properties. For the first time in regards to the geometric literature, a region of attraction independent of the position error is identified and its effects are analyzed. The effectiveness of the proposed "surface based" controllers are illustrated by simulations of aggressive maneuvers in the presence of disturbances and motor saturation.