Backstepping based control design with state estimation and path tracking, to an indoor quadrotor helicopter

Abstract

The article focuses on different aspects (both theoretical and practical) of the development of the control algorithm of a quadrotor helicopter starting from the modelling phase. A new control algorithm is elaborated and supplementary components are described in detail including state estimation and path tracking. The helicopter's dynamic model takes into account the aerodynamic friction, the gyroscopic effect of the rotors and also the motor dynamics. The control algorithm is based on the backstepping approach and is capable of stabilising the model even in case of realistic noises. Vision system and on-board inertial measurement unit provide the measurements and two-level extended Kalman filter based state estimator is used to suppress the measurement noises and to estimate the unmeasured signals. The methods of the software development and real-time testing are also presented with attention to the sources of common errors. © Periodica Polytechnica 2009.