A Review of UAVs Topologies and Control Techniques

Abstract

Various unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have recently emerged and deployed in several real-life applications. The complexity of the coupled and underactuated dynamics and the presence of uncertainties and disturbances have shaped several research projects. Indeed, numerous intelligent and robust linear and nonlinear flight controllers have been investigated in the literature. In this paper, the evolution over the years of UAVs is presented and, a classification is proposed based on different parameters, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each type. Finally, several applied control algorithms to the UAVs are investigated where a brief explanation is given. The contribution of this work is to give an orientation to the flight control researcher on UAV's nonlinear control.