Integral Backstepping-based Nonlinear Flight Control Strategy for Quadrotor Aerial Robot with Unknown Mass

Abstract

This paper aims at obtaining a stable and rapid-responsive controller for quadrotor aerial robots with unknown or changeable mass. Based on Newton-Euler formula, integral backstepping method and fractional-order PI/PD control, an adaptive flight control strategy is carried out in Matlab with Lyapunov stability theorem to ensure its stability. The control strategy includes cascade fractional PI/PD control for rotational loop and integral backstepping control for translational loop. Through the comparison with conventional PID flight controller, main criteria for performance as setting time, maximum overshoot and steady-error show its improvement. After validating the proposed control system and controller tuning with several meta-heuristic algorithms, results from non-linear simulation verify the effectiveness and robustness for hovering or near hovering (near quasi-stationary) flight of quadrotors.