Design and Experimental Validation of a Robust Trajectory Tracking Control Scheme for Small Fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

This paper discusses the trajectory tracking problem for miniature fixed-wing UAVs subject to wind gust disturbances and heterogeneous uncertainties. Based on a simplified aerodynamic model, a 6-state translational model is derived from the fixed-wing UAV dynamics by assuming an ideal inner-loop attitude controller. Combining signal compensation and feedback linearization method, we propose a new robust trajectory tracking controller for planar motion control, which incorporates a nominal linear controller to achieve the prescribed convergence and a robust compensator to restrain the effect of disturbances and uncertainties, while a well-tuned PID controller is developed for altitude regulation. The proposed robust control scheme is implemented on a miniature fixed-wing UAV and the flight tests for different scenarios(including both strong and light wind) are performed. The experimental results are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the robust control scheme.