Nonlinear Control with Swing Damping of a Multirotor UAV with Suspended Load

In this paper, we consider the problem of trajectory tracking of a multirotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle carrying a suspended payload. The movement of the suspended payload influences the dynamics of the multirotor, which must be appropriately handled by the controller to achieve satisfactory tracking results. We derive a mathematical model of the interconnected multi-body system using Kane’s equations, and develop a non-linear tracking controller based on the backstepping technique. In addition to suppressing the effects of the swinging payload, the controller also compensates for an unknown constant wind disturbance. The origin of the tracking error is proven UGAS (Uniformly Globally Asymptotically Stable) and ULES (Uniformly Locally Exponentially Stable) through Lyapunov analysis. To reduce the swing motion of the suspended load, a nominal swing-free path is generated through open loop shaping filters, then further perturbed through a delayed feedback approach from measured load deflection angles to achieve robustness. The proposed controller structure is verified by simulations and experiments.