A Sliding Mode Controller for Under-actuated VTOL Aircraft

Abstract

The trajectory tracking control for the under-actuated VTOL (vertical take off and landing) aircraft is addressed. VTOL aircraft is an under-actuated system with three degrees of freedom and two control inputs. The motion equations of the system are transformed into underactuated standard form using coordinate transformations and the Sliding Mode Controller is designed. Then, the Lyapunov stability analysis shows that the control strategy guarantees the stability of the closed- loop system.Simulation results indicate that the proposed control scheme can make VTOL aircraft track the desired trajectory rapidly.