Extremum Seeking Control for Autonomous Rotorcraft

In recent times, multirotors Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have fascinated researchers because of their high maneuverability to carry out complex autonomous missions. Most of these vehicles use on-board Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller for the stabilization of the vehicle during flights. However, it is well known that the effectiveness of PID controller is limited due to poor (online) tuning. In this paper, we propose the combination of PID controller and Extremum Seeking Control to provide tracking control to an autonomous quadrotor. Extremum Seeking (ES), a nonmodel-based optimization method, iteratively modifies state feedback control (SFC) parameters through a cost function so that the output can be optimized. ESC is used to provide online tuning to the controller. The performance of the designed controller is then evaluated through simulations. The results show the effectiveness and robustness of the ES controller for tracking through waypoints.