Full Control of Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle using Multivariable Proportional Integral Derivative Controller

Abstract

The quadrotor is known for its mechanical simplicity. However, the control mechanism is complex due to six degree of freedom i.e. X, Y and Z axis that represent the motion control of altitude and the pitch, roll and yaw representing the motion control of the attitude of the quadrotor. In this paper, the issues pertaining to the complexity in controlling the whole quadrotor system is highlighted. Quadrotor is very sensitive towards disturbance and thus, causing it to not perform effectively especially in search and rescue missions, in which the quadrotor is required to access limited areas. Due to the six degree of freedom complexity, it is difficult to find a suitable controller that can continue to improve the accuracy and the performance of motion of the quadrotor. This paper focused on optimizing the previously obtained quadrotor system by implementing a controller that ensures motion stabilization. The multivariable Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller is the chosen controller and the performance of each of the different controllers will be compared to determine the best controller that should be implemented in order to improve the accuracy of the quadrotor motion especially the rotational motion. The rotational motion is chosen because the angle for the pitch, roll and yaw are dependent to the translational motion. This means that the rotational motion and the translational motion of the quadrotor system are connected to each other. The result for the simulation of the quadrotor performance is analyzed by using MATLAB and Simulink. Finally, after analyzing all of the controllers, results show that multivariable PID controllers are able to stabilize all the motion responses of the quadrotor.