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Nonlinear disturbance observer based robust attitude tracking controller for quadrotor UAVs

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Abstract

This paper presents a robust attitude tracking controller for quadrotors based on the nonlinear disturbance observer, which has been developed recently. The structural condition on the input gain matrix, which is not easy to check, is removed by factorizing it into two parts and modifying the disturbance observer structure. A constructive design procedure is provided and it is shown that the proposed controller recovers the performance of the nominal closed-loop system in the whole time horizon under parameter uncertainties and disturbance torques. The results are validated through simulations and compared with the feedback linearization design.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Robotics, Kwangwoon University, 447-1 Wolgye-dong, Nowon-gu, Seoul, Korea

    Kooksun Lee, Juhoon Back & Ick Choy

Authors
  1. Kooksun Lee
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  2. Juhoon Back
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  3. Ick Choy
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juhoon Back.

Additional information

Recommended by Associate Editor Young Ik Son under the direction of Editor Euntai Kim.

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2012R1A1A 2006923), the New & Renewable Energy of the KETEP grant funded by the Korea government Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (20123030020060), and the Research Grant of Kwangwoon University in 2013.

Kooksun Lee received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electronics and Communications Engineering and Control and Instrumentation Engineering from Kwangwoon University, Seoul, Korea, in 2009 and 2011, respectively. He is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree at Kwangwoon University. His research interests include nonlinear, robust control for electronic devices and alternative energy systems.

Juhoon Back received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Design and Production Engineering from Seoul National University, in 1997 and 1999, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree from the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 2004. From 2004 to 2005, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Seoul National University and from 2005 to 2006, he worked as a research associate at the Control and Power Group, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, UK. From 2007 to 2008, he was a BK21 contract professor at Korea University, Korea. Since 2008 he has been at Kwangwoon University, Seoul, Korea, where he is currently an associate professor in the School of Robotics. His research interests include control system theory and design, positive systems, alternative energy systems, and robotics.

Ick Choy received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Seoul National University, Korea, in 1979, 1981 and 1990, respectively. From 1981 to 2003, he was with the Intelligent System Control Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Korea. He is currently a Professor in School of Robotics, Kwangwoon University, Korea. His research interests include high-performance electrical machine drives, alternative energy systems, and emerging technologies.

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Lee, K., Back, J. & Choy, I. Nonlinear disturbance observer based robust attitude tracking controller for quadrotor UAVs. Int. J. Control Autom. Syst. 12, 1266–1275 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12555-014-0145-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12555-014-0145-x

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