Design of trajectory tracking controller with backstepping method for quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles

Abstract

This paper proposes a trajectory tracking control method for quadrotor UAV, by utilizing the backstepping control and dual-loop cascade control. This control system contains two parts: the position controller and attitude controller. The position controller is the outer loop. This controller is a full-driver control system which is more accurate than the underactuated controller. The outer position controller translates the desired path information into some new control variables. Through the cascade control method, these control variables are passed to the attitude controller which is the follow-up controller as the virtual control input. A steady-state control of trajectory tracking for quadrotor UAV is achieved by this control system. The flight reference trajectory can be tracked well and it is proved through simulations.