Title: Quadcopter attitude and altitude tracking by using improved PD controllers

Authors: Khadija El Hamidi; Mostafa Mjahed; Abdeljalil El Kari; Hassan Ayad

Addresses: Laboratory of Electric Systems and Telecommunications (LSET), Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, University Cadi Ayyad, Guéliz Marrakech 40000, Morocco ' Mathematics and Systems Department, Royal School of Aeronautics, Marrakech 40160, Morocco ' Laboratory of Electric Systems and Telecommunications (LSET), Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, University Cadi Ayyad, Guéliz Marrakech 40000, Morocco ' Laboratory of Electric Systems and Telecommunications (LSET), Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, University Cadi Ayyad, Guéliz Marrakech 40000, Morocco

Abstract: The quadcopter is a complex coupled nonlinear system with unstable behaviour, which makes it difficult to control. Therefore, in this paper, we present an effective control method based on neural network gain-scheduled PD (NNGS-PD) and model reference controller-based PD (MRC-PD) for quadcopter attitude stabilisation and altitude tracking. Both nonlinear and linear methods verified the stability and robustness of the proposed controllers. The simulation results illustrate that the synthesis control methods have good performance in terms of attitude and altitude tracking when faced with external disturbances.

Keywords: quadcopter; nonlinear; attitude; altitude; proportional-derivative; parameter tuning; neural network; reference model.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNDC.2019.098688

International Journal of Nonlinear Dynamics and Control, 2019 Vol.1 No.3, pp.287 - 303

Received: 19 Jul 2018
Accepted: 05 Nov 2018
Published online: 29 Mar 2019 *

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