Geometric Adaptive Tracking Control of a Quadrotor UAV on SE(3) for Agile Maneuvers

TL;DR

This paper develops a geometric nonlinear adaptive control system for quadrotors on SE(3), enabling stable and precise aggressive maneuvers despite uncertainties and disturbances, validated through simulations and experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel adaptive control law directly on SE(3) that guarantees stability and robustness against uncertainties in quadrotor dynamics.

Findings

Successful aggressive maneuvers in simulations and experiments

The control law maintains stability under disturbances

Enhanced robustness compared to existing methods

Abstract

This paper presents nonlinear tracking control systems for a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle under the influence of uncertainties. Assuming that there exist unstructured disturbances in the translational dynamics and the attitude dynamics, a geometric nonlinear adaptive controller is developed directly on the special Euclidean group. In particular, a new form of an adaptive control term is proposed to guarantee stability while compensating the effects of uncertainties in quadrotor dynamics. A rigorous mathematical stability proof is given. The desirable features are illustrated by numerical example and experimental results of aggressive maneuvers.