Constrained Robust Model Reference Adaptive Control of a Tilt-Rotor Quadcopter Pulling an Unmodeled Cart

This article presents an innovative control architecture for tilt-rotor quadcopters with H-configuration transporting unknown, sling payloads. This control architecture leverages on a thorough analysis of the aircraft's equation of motion, which reveals gyroscopic effects that were not fully ch...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on aerospace and electronic systems 2021-02, Vol.57 (1), p.39-54
Main Authors: Anderson, Robert B., Marshall, Julius A., L'Afflitto, Andrea
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aircraft
Algorithms
Constrained feedback control synthesis
Constraints
Control algorithms
Control theory
Equations of motion
Helicopters
Liapunov functions
Mathematical model
Military helicopters
Model reference adaptive control
Payloads
Propellers
Robust control
robust model reference adaptive control
Rotors
sling payload
tilt-rotor quadcopter
Tracking control
Tracking errors
Trajectory tracking
Uncertainty
Vehicle dynamics
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Summary:This article presents an innovative control architecture for tilt-rotor quadcopters with H-configuration transporting unknown, sling payloads. This control architecture leverages on a thorough analysis of the aircraft's equation of motion, which reveals gyroscopic effects that were not fully characterized and were disregarded while synthesizing control algorithms in prior publications. Furthermore, the proposed control architecture employs barrier Lyapunov functions and a novel robust model reference adaptive control law to guarantee a priori user-defined constraints on both the trajectory tracking error and the control input, despite poor information on the aircraft's inertial properties and the presence of unknown, unsteady payloads. Flight tests involving a quadcopter pulling an unmodeled cart by means of a thin rope of unknown length, which is slack at the beginning of the mission, verify the effectiveness of the theoretical results.
ISSN:0018-9251
1557-9603
DOI:10.1109/TAES.2020.3008575