Tracking Control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Power Line Inspection

This work presents some results about power transmission line tracking control and a full autonomous inspection using a quadrotor helicopter. The presented in this paper power line autonomous inspection allows detecting power line defects caused by thunderstorms, corrosion, insulator malfunctions, and same time monitoring of vegetation under the power line corridor. Traditional inspection is performed by helicopters equipped with high-resolution cameras or by direct visual examination carried out by highly skilled staff climbing over de-energized power lines. However, the visual inspection is time-expensive and costly. Moreover, due to regulatory constraints, the helicopters cannot cover narrow mountainous areas. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are an attractive alternative for power line inspection. In this work, a mathematical model for the quadrotor helicopter used in the autonomous inspection is presented. The model is successfully evaluated through simulations and flight experiments. Next, the construction of a quadrotor helicopter system and its application to power line autonomous inspection is introduced. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and applicability of that system. The results of this research are in the process of implementation for regular inspection of electrical transmission lines.

A Robust Fault-Tolerant Control for Quadrotor Helicopters against Sensor Faults and External Disturbances

This paper presents an active fault-tolerant control strategy for quadrotor helicopters to simultaneously accommodate sensor faults and external disturbances. Unlike most of the existing fault diagnosis and fault-tolerant control schemes for quadrotor helicopters, the proposed fault diagnosis scheme is able to estimate sensor faults while eliminating the effect of external disturbances. Moreover, the proposed fault-tolerant control scheme is capable to eliminate the adverse effect of external disturbances as well by designing a disturbance observer to effectively estimate the unknown external disturbances and integrating with the designed integral sliding-mode controller. In this case, the continuous operation of the quadrotor helicopter is ensured while avoiding the unexpected control chattering. In addition, the stability of the closed-loop system is theoretically proved. Finally, the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed scheme are validated and demonstrated through comparative numerical simulations of the quadrotor helicopter under different faulty and uncertain scenarios.

The nonlinear computed torque control of a quadrotor

<p>This paper work focused on the study of the nonlinear computed torque<br />control of a quadrotor helicopter. In order to model the dynamic of the<br />vehicles, kinematics and dynamics modeling of the X4 is presented. Euler<br />angles and parameters are used in the formulation of this model and the<br />technique of Computed Torque control is introduced. In the second part of<br />the paper, we develop a methodology of control that allows the quadrotor to<br />accomplish a prospecting mission of an environment, as the follow-up of a<br />trajectory by the simulation. Results show that Computed Torque control<br />method is suitable for X4.</p>