Globally-Attractive Logarithmic Geometric Control of a Quadrotor for Aggressive Trajectory Tracking

TL;DR

This paper introduces a globally attractive geometric control method for quadrotors that effectively tracks aggressive trajectories using a logarithmic map of SO(3), validated through simulations and hardware experiments.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel logarithmic geometric control scheme for quadrotors that ensures global attractiveness without hybrid switching, suitable for aggressive trajectory tracking.

Findings

Successful simulation of aggressive trajectory tracking

Effective hardware implementation on a quadrotor platform

Controller maintains stability during aggressive maneuvers

Abstract

We present a new quadrotor geometric control scheme that is capable of tracking highly aggressive trajectories. Our geometric controller uses the logarithmic map of SO(3) to express rotational error in the Lie algebra, and we show that it is globally attractive without requiring a complicated hybrid switching scheme. We show the performance of our controller against highly aggressive trajectories in simulation experiments. Additionally, we present an adaptation of this controller that allows us to interface effectively with the angular rate controllers on an onboard flight control unit and show the ability of this adapted control scheme to track aggressive trajectories on a quadrotor hardware platform.