Analysis and Control of a Planar Quadrotor

TL;DR

This paper models, analyzes, and controls a planar quadrotor using linear and nonlinear approaches, comparing traditional PD control with modern reinforcement learning methods to evaluate stability and performance.

Contribution

It introduces a linear model for planar quadrotor dynamics, develops a PD controller, and compares its effectiveness with deep reinforcement learning techniques.

Findings

Linear model accurately captures planar quadrotor dynamics

PD controller stabilizes the system effectively

Reinforcement learning methods show promising performance improvements

Abstract

In this paper, we model the planar motion of a quadcopter, and develop a linear model of the same. We perform stability analysis of the open loop system and develop a PD controller for its position control. We compare the closed loop response between the linear and non linear systems using the controller developed for the linear system. We also perform stability analysis for the linear and non linear systems, and compare the PD controller with modern deep neural methods based on reinforcement learning actor-critic networks.