Trajectory planning of quadrotor using sliding mode control with extended state observer

Abstract

This paper presents the trajectory planning of an under-actuated quadcopter unmanned aerial vehicle. To control the complete structure of the rotorcraft, the main model is divided into two sub-models, namely inner model and external model. The inner model is for the attitude control model controlled by the sliding mode controller and the outer model is altitude control model governed by the extended state observer. The quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle is a type of multivariable, multi-degree-of-freedom and nonlinear in nature. Planning the trajectory of the unmanned aerial vehicle and stabilizing its flight are complex tasks because of its ability to maneuver quickly. Due to these stated issues, the tuning of this type of dynamic system is a difficult task. This paper deals with these issues by designing the aforementioned dual controller scheme. In addition, the effectiveness of the proposed controller is apparent in simulations performed in MATLAB, Simulink 2016. The designed controller shows better results and robustness than traditional controllers do.