Trajectory Tracking Control for a QUAV Based on Second Order Sliding Mode

In this study, a position and attitude tracking control approach is designed for a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (QUAV). In the controller design, the entire control system is divided into two parts: a fully actuated subsystem and an underactuated subsystem. For the fully actuated subsystem, a traditional sliding mode controller is proposed, while a novel second-order sliding mode controller is developed for the underactuated subsystem. It is proved that all the signals in the overall system are bounded, and that all the state variables can track the reference trajectories. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.