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Quadrotor Kinematics and Dynamics

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Handbook of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of the rigid body dynamics of a quadrotor as well as several controllers for the quadrotor. First, the Newton-Euler equations of motion that govern the quadrotor motion are described, and it is shown that the quadrotor model is differentially flat. Next, two controllers for the quadrotor are presented. The first is a linear controller based on a linearized model of the dynamics. The second is a nonlinear controller derived from the original dynamic model. The architecture of the GRASP quadrotor testbed at the University of Pennsylvania is also presented. Finally, experimental results which illustrate the dynamics and control of small quadrotors are presented.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Caitlin Powers & Vijay Kumar

  2. KMel Robotics, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Daniel Mellinger

Authors
  1. Caitlin Powers
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  2. Daniel Mellinger
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  3. Vijay Kumar
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Caitlin Powers , Daniel Mellinger or Vijay Kumar .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Kimon P. Valavanis

  2. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    George J. Vachtsevanos

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© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Powers, C., Mellinger, D., Kumar, V. (2015). Quadrotor Kinematics and Dynamics. In: Valavanis, K., Vachtsevanos, G. (eds) Handbook of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9707-1_71

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