A robust control design approach for altitude control and trajectory tracking of a quadrotor

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Introduction. Unmanned aerial vehicles as quadcopters, twin rotors, fixed-wing crafts, and helicopters are being used in many applications these days. Control approaches applied on the quadrotor after decoupling the model or separate altitude control and trajectory tracking have been reported in the literature. A robust linear H∞ controller has been designed for both altitude control and circular trajectory tracking at the desired altitude. Problem. The ability of the quadrotor system to hover at a certain height and track any desired trajectory makes their use in many industrial applications in both military and civil applications. Once a controller has been designed, it may not be able to maintain the desired performance in practical scenarios, i.e. in presence of wind gusts. Originality. This work presents the control strategy to ensure both altitude control and trajectory tracking using a single controller. Purpose. However, there is a need for a single controller that ensures both altitude control and trajectory tracking. Novelty. This paper presents a robust H∞ control for altitude control and trajectory tracking for a six degree of freedom of unmanned aerial vehicles quadrotor. Methodology. Multi input multi output robust H∞ controller has been proposed for the quadrotor for altitude control and tracking the desired reference. For the controller validation, a simulation environment is developed in which a 3D trajectory is tracked by the proposed control methodology. Results. Simulation results depict that the controller is efficient enough to achieve the desired objective at minimal control efforts. Practical value. To verify that the proposed approach is able to ensure stability, altitude control, and trajectory tracking under practical situations, the performance of the proposed control is tested in presence of wind gusts. The ability of the controller to cater to the disturbances within fractions of seconds and maintaining both transient and steady-state performance proves the effectiveness of the controller.