Robust backstepping trajectory tracking control of a quadrotor with input saturation via extended state observer

Abstract

Quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles have become increasingly popular in several applications, and the improvement of their control performance has been documented in several studies. Nevertheless, the design of a high-performance tracking controller for aerial vehicles that reliably functions in the simultaneous presence of model uncertainties, external disturbances, and control input saturation still remains a challenge. In this paper, we present a robust backstepping trajectory tracking control of a quadrotor with input saturation. The controller design accounts for both parameterized uncertainties and external disturbances, whereas a new auxiliary system is proposed to cope with control input saturation. Taking into account that only the position and attitude of the quadrotor are measurable, we devise an extended state observer to supply the estimations of unmeasured states, model uncertainties, and external disturbances. We strictly prove the stability of the closed-loop system by using the Lyapunov theory and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm through numerical simulations.