Control of a fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicle using a higher-order sliding mode controller and non-linear PID controller

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have seen a rise in use during the last few years. Such aircrafts are now a convenient way to complete dangerous, dirty, and tedious tasks. Given that their operation involves a control problem which is non-linear and coupled, it is difficult to analyse. This paper presents the modeling and control of a fixed-wing unmanned aircraft as a contribution to this field. The system’s flight dynamics is derived using Newton’s second law of motion. The system is designed to have a non-linear Proportional Integral Derivative (NPID) controller and a higher-order sliding mode controller (HOSMC). When simulating the system using MATLAB Simulink software, an external disturbance was added to test the robustness of the controllers. Five performance indices which include mean square error (MSE), integral time square error (ITSE), integral absolute error (IAE), integral time absolute error (ITAE), and integral square error (ISE), were used to compare the controllers performance. These indices are used to provide a numerical assessment of the two controllers’ performance. The outcomes demonstrate that the roll, pitch, and yaw states performed better than the super-twisting sliding mode controller. On the airspeed control, the non-linear PID performed better than the super-twisting sliding mode controller.