MPC-Based Trajectory Tracking for a Quadrotor UAV with Uniform Semi-Global Asymptotic Stability Guarantees

TL;DR

This paper introduces a hierarchical MPC-based control method for quadrotor trajectory tracking, ensuring stability and effective attitude regulation under input constraints, validated through simulations.

Contribution

It presents a novel hierarchical control framework combining MPC and hybrid geometric control with stability guarantees for quadrotor trajectory tracking.

Findings

The outer-loop MPC guarantees uniform global asymptotic stability.

The hybrid geometric controller achieves semi-global exponential attitude tracking.

Simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.

Abstract

This paper proposes a model predictive trajectory tracking approach for quadrotors subject to input constraints. Our proposed approach relies on a hierarchical control strategy with an outer-loop feedback generating the required thrust and desired attitude and an inner-loop feedback regulating the actual attitude to the desired one. For the outer-loop translational dynamics, the generation of the virtual control input is formulated as a constrained model predictive control problem with time-varying input constraints and a control strategy, endowed with uniform global asymptotic stability guarantees, is proposed. For the inner-loop rotational dynamics, a hybrid geometric controller is adopted, achieving semi-global exponential tracking of the desired attitude. Finally, we prove that the overall cascaded system is semi-globally asymptotically stable. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.