Flight control of a rotary wing UAV using backstepping

This paper presents a novel application of backstepping controller for autonomous landing of a rotary wing UAV (RUAV). This application, which holds good for the full flight envelope control, is an extension of a backstepping algorithm for general rigid body velocity control. The nonlinear RUAV model used in this paper includes the flapping and servo dynamics. The backstepping‐based controller takes advantage of the ‘decoupling’ of the translation and rotation dynamics of the rigid body, resulting in a two‐step procedure to obtain the RUAV control inputs. The first step is to compute desired thrusts and flapping angles to achieve the commanded position and the second step is to compute control inputs, which achieve the desired thrusts and flapping angles. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the inclusion of a flapping angle correction term in control. The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested using a high‐fidelity RUAV simulation model. The RUAV simulation model is based on miniature rotorcraft parameters. The closed‐loop response of the rotorcraft indicates that the desired position is achieved after a short transient. The Eagle RUAV control inputs, obtained using high‐fidelity simulation results, clearly demonstrate that this algorithm can be implemented on practical RUAVs.

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