Controlling of Quadrotor UAV Using a Fuzzy System for Tuning the PID Gains in Hovering Mode

The studies in UAV modeling and control have been increased rapidly recently. This paper presents the modeling and control of a four rotor vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned air vehicle known as quadrotor aircraft. The modeling of the quadrotor will be described by using Euler-Newton equations. In order to stable the quadrotor and control the attitude of that, classical PID controller and a fuzzy system that adjusts the PID controller gains, have been designed. Although fuzzy control of various dynamical systems has been presented in literature, application of this technology to quadrotor helicopter control is quite new. A quadrotor has nonlinear characteristics where classical control methods are not adequate for stabilize that. On the other hand, fuzzy control is nonlinear and it is thus suitable for nonlinear system control. Matlab Simulink has been used to test, analyze and compare the performance of the controllers in simulations. This study showed that although, both of the classical PID and the fuzzy self-tuning PID controllers, can control the system properly, the second controller performed better than the classical PID controller. Key words—Quadrotor, Fuzzy control, Modeling, Attitude control, PID controller, MATLAB / Simulink .