A State Observer-Based Fractional-Order Approach for Trajectory Tracking and Attitude Control of A Quadrotor

Abstract

With the expanding utility base of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), there comes a strong need for dedicated research towards effective control strategies for these aircraft. This paper presents a feedback control scheme for the trajectory tracking and flight control problem for quadrotor-type UAVs. In particular, a robust fractional-order sliding mode control (FOSMC) scheme based on a state observer approach, consisting of position tracking and an attitude control strategy, is proposed. The basic idea behind choosing the state observer technique is to prevent the chattering phenomenon in this highly non-linear and under-actuated dynamic structure, and preserve the robustness and finite time reachability properties of Sliding Mode controllers. The stability of the proposed control law is proved using Lyapunov’s theorem. Furthermore, a detailed performance analysis of the proposed method is presented in comparison to the existing control algorithms from the recent literature. The obtained results are found promising.