Adaptive attitude and altitude control of a quadrotor despite unknown wind disturbances

Abstract

This paper presents an adaptive controller design for the attitude and altitude of UAV quadrotors which are subjected to wind disturbances. During the design, it is assumed that the total mass, the inertia tensor, the arms' length of the quadrotor and the thrust and drag coefficients of the propellers attached on the quadrotor are unknown. Moreover, the wind disturbances are assumed as a finite sum of sinusoidal functions with unknown frequencies, amplitudes and phases. It is proved that the equilibrium of the closed loop error system is stable, all signals are bounded and desired altitude and attitude control are achieved despite unknown wind disturbances and plant parameters. Finally, a simulation is performed to show the feasibility of the design.