Adaptive nonlinear robust Control of a Novel Unconventional Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

An adaptive nonlinear robust controller for a novel highly maneuverable dual-ducted UAV is considered in this paper. The dynamics of the system is highly nonlinear and not originally in the control-affine form. At first the equations governing the dynamics of the system are extracted. Then a change of variables is proposed to transform the dynamic equations into the control-affine form. It is assumed that the system is subject to unknown disturbances. Therefore, a control law enabling the UAV to accomplish tracking missions, alongside an adaptive law estimating unknown disturbances are derived. Unlike previous nonlinear robust methods applied to this UAV, the asymptotic stability of the controller in the presence of unknown disturbance is analytically demonstrated. This controller enables the UAV to follow any desired translational and rotational trajectory and also accounts for a range of unknown disturbances. Finally, a computerized simulation is conducted to verify the analytical results.