Backstepping Sliding Mode-based Trajectory Control of a Quadrotor UAV

Abstract

Technological advancements and cost reductions have enabled the emergence of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which are aircraft capable of flying without the need for a pilot. These UAVs have opened up various possibilities such as aerial photography, video recording, mapping, pollution and land monitoring, power-line inspection, firefighting, agricultural applications, military operations and more. Due to its unique characteristics, such as strong coupling of subsystems, unidentified physical properties, nonparametric uncertainties in inputs, and external disruptions, this vehicle is particularly well-liked in the scientific community. In this research work, a dynamic model of a quadrotor UAV and actuators is developed and backstepping sliding mode control (BSMC) technique is applied to control trajectory of a quadrotor UAV and asymptotic stability of the designed controller is achieved using the Lyapunov stability analysis. The designed control structure incorporates both a backstepping and sliding mode control method to adequately reduce the chattering effect of sliding mode control by differential iteration, the switching gain of sliding mode control is developed during the backstepping design process. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is used to optimize the controller parameters. Finally, the performance of the designed controller is tested under variable load and time varying wind gust for a different trajectory in MATLAB software tool. The simulation results show that the quadrotor can handle a load varies from 0.5kg to 18 kg under normal conditions and a load varies from 0.5kg to 12kg when the quadrotor is subjected to a time varying wind gust. Also, the chattering effect due to SMC is reduce effectively. Additionally, performance of BSMC is compared with SMC and BSC to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller.