Journal of Applied Sciences ›› 2017, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (2): 244-256.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.0255-8297.2017.02.011

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Steepest Approaching Method for Tracking Desired Thrust Vectoring of Rotor UAVs

DENG Shi-qian, CHENG Wan-sheng, WANG Kai   

  1. School of Electronic and Information Engineering, University of Science and Technology of Liaoning, Anshan 114051, Liaoning Province, China
  • Received:2016-01-19 Revised:2016-07-30 Online:2017-03-30 Published:2017-03-30

Abstract:

As for the trajectory tracking task of rotor UAVs, this paper proposes a fast approaching method based on the equivalent rotation vector of quaternion, to be used to optimize the control mode of trajectory tracking. The process is described as follows:when a thrust vectoring target is generated in the position control loop, the minimum rotation vector and minimum attitude change quaternion can be defined with this method. The desired attitude quaternion is then obtained, and provided to the attitude control loop to realize fast approaching to the desired thrust vectoring. Results of simulation and flight control system tests show that the proposed method enables thrust vectoring to track the target vector with an optimal path. Meanwhile, it can decrease the UAVs' attitude variation and tracking time. A trajectory tracking control solution is also designed by using the steepest approach method. Compared with other solutions without optimization, the solution given in this paper requires less computation. It is especially suitable for applications with low cost embedded controllers.

Key words: thrust vectoring, backstepping, cascade PID control, quaternion, rotor UAV, equivalent rotation vector

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