Modeling, Construction and Control of Quadrotors

Abstract

Flight stabilization control of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) quadrotors covers several areas of engineering knowledge, such as mechanics, electronics and computing. The aim of this work is the development of different controllers for such stabilization. Two controllers, a PID and a LQR, were developed and evaluated in order to establish a comparison between the results obtained for each one and to determine which one is the most efficient. For such development, a mathematical model of the UAV in question was obtained in order to enable the design of the controllers. The model parameters are from a real quadrotor that was built to validate the mathematical model and the efficiency of the designed controllers. The prototype was designed to have sufficient flight autonomy to carry out the tests, mechanical resistance to all conditions that can be exposed during the flight, such as wind and vibrations, and be controllable. In order to validate the efficiency of the developed controllers, simulations and tests were applied to the prototype attached to a gyroscopic test structure. To perform the simulations, the plant to be controlled was the model previously obtained. Nevertheless, the experimental tests applied to the prototype, on the other hand, suffered non modelled phenomena such as inertia coupling of the test structure and nonlinearities. The results showed that all the designed controllers are capable of stabilizing the flight of the quadrotor.