Position tracking control for a tailsitter VTOL UAV experiencing time-varying crosswind disturbances

doi:10.16511/j.cnki.qhdxxb.2021.26.036

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Abstract A position tracking control method was designed with an attitude extraction algorithm for a tailsitter vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) subjected to time-varying crosswind disturbances. A mathematical model was constructed to predict the relationship between the crosswind disturbance and the aircraft's attitude. An attitude extraction algorithm was then developed using the aircraft's roll angle which significantly reduces the effect of the disturbance. A backstepping control method was used with a saturated function technique to account for the thrust boundedness with a PD plus feedforward control method for the attitude tracking control. The unknown derivatives of the desired attitude caused by the time-varying crosswind disturbance were resolved by a command filter. Tests show that the tracking error can be made arbitrarily small as long as the command filter frequency is sufficiently large.

Keywords tailsitter unmanned aerial vehicle vertical take-off and landing crosswind disturbances

Issue Date: 14 January 2022

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	WU Linfeng
	LI Chunwen

Cite this article:

WU Linfeng,LI Chunwen. Position tracking control for a tailsitter VTOL UAV experiencing time-varying crosswind disturbances[J]. Journal of Tsinghua University(Science and Technology), 2022, 62(1): 179-188.

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http://jst.tsinghuajournals.com/EN/10.16511/j.cnki.qhdxxb.2021.26.036 OR http://jst.tsinghuajournals.com/EN/Y2022/V62/I1/179

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