Geometric Controls for a Tethered Quadrotor UAV

TL;DR

This paper develops a geometric control framework for tethered quadrotor UAVs, modeling the coupled dynamics of the drone and tether to enable stable long-term aerial surveillance.

Contribution

It introduces an intrinsic, global dynamic model and geometric control methods that handle tether deformation and avoid local coordinate singularities.

Findings

Successful stabilization of coupled quadrotor-tether dynamics

Global control approach avoids local coordinate singularities

Numerical examples demonstrate effectiveness

Abstract

This paper deals with the dynamics and controls of a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle that is connected to a fixed point on the ground via a tether. Tethered quadrotors have been envisaged for long-term aerial surveillance with high-speed communications. This paper presents an intrinsic form of the dynamic model of a tethered quadrotor including the coupling between deformations of the tether and the motion of the quadrotor, and it constructs geometric control systems to asymptotically stabilize the coupled dynamics of the quadrotor and the tether. The proposed global formulation of dynamics and control also avoids complexities and singularities associated with local coordinates. These are illustrated by numerical examples.