Nonlinear Robust Adaptive Tracking Control of a Quadrotor UAV Via Immersion and Invariance Methodology

TLDR

The paper proposes an asymptotic tracking controller for an underactuated quadrotor UAV that combines the robust integral of the signum of the error (RISE) method with an immersion and invariance (I&I) adaptive control strategy. The controller is structured as a two‑loop system, with a RISE‑based inner loop for attitude disturbance rejection and an I&I‑based outer loop for position control that compensates parametric uncertainties, and its performance is validated on a hardware‑in‑the‑loop testbed. Lyapunov‑based analysis and LaSalle's theorem prove asymptotic tracking of time‑varying 3‑D position and yaw trajectories, and experiments confirm the scheme’s effectiveness.

Abstract

This paper presents a novel asymptotic tracking controller for an underactuated quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle using the robust integral of the signum of the error (RISE) method and an immersion and invariance (I&I)-based adaptive control methodology. The control system is decoupled into two parts: the inner loop for attitude control and the outer loop for position control. The RISE approach is applied in the inner loop for disturbance rejection, whereas the I&I approach is chosen for the outer loop to compensate for the parametric uncertainties. The asymptotic tracking of the time-varying 3-D position and the yaw motion reference trajectories is proven via the Lyapunov-based stability analysis and LaSalle's invariance theorem. Real-time experiment results, which are performed on a hardware-in-the-loop simulation testbed, are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed control scheme.