Autonomous flight control law for an indoor UAV quadrotor

Due to the limitation of the size and power, micro unmanned aerial vehicle (MUAV) usually has a small load capacity. Aiming at the problems of limited installation space and easy being interfered in flight attitude measurement of the small-scale unmanned helicopter (SUH), a low-cost and lightweight flight control system of the SUH based on ARM Cortex-M4 core microcontroller and Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) sensors is developed in this paper. On this basis, in order to realize the autonomous flight control of SUH, firstly, the mathematical model of the SUH is given by using the Newton-Euler formulation. Secondly, a cascade flight controller consisting of the attitude controller and the position controller is developed based on linear active disturbance rejection control (LADRC) and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control. Furthermore, simulations are conducted to validate the performance of the attitude controller and the position controller in MATLAB/SIMULINK simulation environment. Finally, based on the Align T-REX 470L SUH experimental platform, the hovering experiment and the route flight experiment are also carried out to validate the performance of the designed flight control system hardware and the proposed control algorithm. The results show that the flight control system designed in this paper has high reliability and strong anti-interference ability, and the control algorithm can effectively and reliably realize the attitude stabilization control and route control of the SUH, with high control accuracy and small error.

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Autonomous Control and Transportation of Underslung Load with Single and Dual Lift Helicopter Systems

Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurement and Control ◽

10.1115/1.4053186 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Kuldeep K Dhiman ◽

Mangal Kothari ◽

Dr. Abhishek

Keyword(s):

Load Distribution ◽

Compressive Load ◽

Force Sensor ◽

Outdoor Environment ◽

Measurement Unit ◽

Control Law ◽

Autonomous Flight ◽

Practical Applications ◽

Load Swing ◽

Load Transportation

Abstract This paper discusses the development of a single lift and dual-lift helicopter underslung load transportation system for practical applications. A control law is developed to damp the load swing and stabilize the oscillation while performing the transportation task. For the dual-lift system, the load transportation is achieved by using a load distribution controller, developed for this purpose, to maintain equal load distribution among the vehicles. The load damping and load distribution controllers require accurate measurement of load states, which is achieved through the design and development of innovative, simple, and lightweight sensors units namely, Load Tension Measurement Unit (LTMU) and Load Swing Measurement Unit (LSMU). LTMU sensor consists of a unique design that utilizes a flexi-force sensor, capable of measuring compressive load, for measurement of cable tension. The cable inclination in the longitudinal and lateral directions is measured by the LSMU sensor. These units are integrated with the helicopter autopilot for autonomous flight. The performance of the developed system is experimentally validated in the outdoor environment with single and dual-lift systems.

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