Technical Papers
Sep 12, 2024

Trajectory Tracking Control Based on Generalized Rodrigues Parameter for Underactuated VTOL UAVs

Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 37, Issue 6

Abstract

In this paper, we design two trajectory tracking control schemes based on generalized Rodrigues parameters (GRPs) for underactuated vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). In the attitude loop, we use rotation matrix to describe the attitude to ensure the global motion of the attitude, and use Rodrigues parameters (RPs) to describe the attitude error to make the attitude error have almost global convergence and avoid unwinding. At the same time, we design the GRP to extend the generalization ability of the attitude error description scheme and improve the control accuracy. Unlike the existing attitude constraint schemes, GRP only needs a constraint boundary to constrain the error angle of PR. The thrust error caused by underactuated characteristics is compensated in the attitude controller by position–attitude cascade decomposition. The controller based on backstepping is designed to exponentially stabilize the zero equilibrium of the error system. In order to simplify the controller structure and reduce the difficulty of engineering application, a control scheme with saturation property is proposed. Finally, numerical simulation is carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

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Data Availability Statement

Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by the Tianjin Education Commission Research Program Project (2021KJ066) and by National Natural Science Foundation of China (U2013201 and 62373045).

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Information & Authors

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Go to Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 37Issue 6November 2024

History

Received: Aug 30, 2023
Accepted: May 7, 2024
Published online: Sep 12, 2024
Published in print: Nov 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Feb 12, 2025

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Sujie Zhang [email protected]
Associate Professor, Tianjin College, Univ. of Science and Technology Beijing, Tianjin 301830, China. Email: [email protected]
Master’s Student, School of Intelligence Science and Technology, Institute of Artificial Intelligence, and Key Laboratory of Intelligent Bionic Unmanned Systems, Ministry of Education, Univ. of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8808-8693. Email: [email protected]
Xingru Chen [email protected]
Master’s Student, School of Intelligence Science and Technology, Institute of Artificial Intelligence, and Key Laboratory of Intelligent Bionic Unmanned Systems, Ministry of Education, Univ. of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China. Email: [email protected]
Associate Professor, School of Intelligence Science and Technology, Institute of Artificial Intelligence, and Key Laboratory of Intelligent Bionic Unmanned Systems, Ministry of Education, Univ. of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China (corresponding author). Email: [email protected]

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