Abstract
This article concerns the development of the Vector Field Orientation – Active Disturbance Rejection (VFO-ADR) cascaded path-following controller for underactuated vehicles moving in a 3-dimensional space. The proposed concept of a cascaded control structure decouples system kinematics from system dynamics, resembling the approach utilized for nonholonomic systems. Thanks to the use of an ADR control approach in the dynamic-level controller, the proposed control structure is robust to even significant model uncertainties and external disturbances. Application of an error-based form of the Extended State Observer (ESO), implemented within the ADR inner-loop controller, implies the output-feedback characteristic of the control structure, i.e., only position and attitude of the vehicle body are expected to be measured. The kinematic-level controller is designed according to the VFO method utilizing the non-parametrized path representation to calculate the commanded velocities. The description of the proposed control structure is followed by the theoretical analysis utilizing the Input-to-State Stability (ISS) theorem and the simulation verification of the proposed solution.
Highlights
The interest in automatic control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) has been gradually growing in recent years, and resulted in a large amount of the designed control structures for various types of objects, such as multicopters [33, 30, 28, 38], airships [45, 44, 36, 2], fixed-wing planes [16] or underwater exploring robots [6, 13, 29]
This paper is a substantial extension of the conference articles [19] and [20], providing a more detailed description and a formal analysis of the Vector Field Orientation - Active Disturbance Rejection (VFO-Active Disturbance Rejection (ADR)) control structure satisfying the non-parametrized path-following in a torpedo-like motion strategy of the vehicle moving in a 3D space
It is worth emphasizing that, unlike the most common cascade control systems designed for UAV/AUV-type objects that are based on the decoupling of longitudinal and angular subsystems, we propose to use the approach utilized in the control of nonholonomic vehicles that decouples system kinematics from system dynamics
Summary
The interest in automatic control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) has been gradually growing in recent years, and resulted in a large amount of the designed control structures for various types of objects, such as multicopters [33, 30, 28, 38], airships [45, 44, 36, 2], fixed-wing planes [16] or underwater exploring robots [6, 13, 29]. We focus on the development of the control structure guaranteeing a realization of the path following motion task in the torpedo-like strategy by a spatially moving vehicle. This paper is a substantial extension of the conference articles [19] and [20], providing a more detailed description and a formal analysis of the VFO-ADR control structure satisfying the non-parametrized path-following in a torpedo-like motion strategy of the vehicle moving in a 3D space. It is worth emphasizing that, unlike the most common cascade control systems designed for UAV/AUV-type objects that are based on the decoupling of longitudinal and angular subsystems, we propose to use the approach utilized in the control of nonholonomic vehicles that decouples system kinematics from system dynamics (see [39]). In order not to make the equations excessively long, we have ommited the signal parameters in longer formulas
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
