Sliding Mode Controller Applied to Autonomous UAV Operation in Marine Small Cargo Transport

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been used in different applications due to their flexibility in maneuvering and performing missions. However, they can face external disturbances, such as wind, which can cause physical instability of the platform. Usually, UAVs commonly use a classical PID controller due to their simple structure and less dependence on the model. However, this classical controller requires expertise from the operator to adjust the parameters when dealing with nonlinearities. Therefore, this work proposes the integration of a slide mode control (SMC) controller into a PX4 flight control unit (FCU) and combining it with computer vision techniques and sensor data fusion to enable autonomous UAV offshore cargo tasks for the Oil & Gas sector. The controller was evaluated in a software in the loop (SITL) simulation performed in the robot operating system (ROS), demonstrating its robustness and potential for small marine cargo transportation using UAVs.