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Quadcopter Path Following Control. A Maneuvering Approach

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Abstract

A standard control systems objective is to achieve stable motion on a trajectory in the state-control space configuration compatible with the system dynamics. Path following and trajectory tracking are typical methods to accomplish this goal. This work uses a version of the path following technique, called maneuvering, to drive a quadrotor to the desired path. In maneuvering, the desired path is a geometric curve parameterized in terms of the path-variable. The path-variable can be employed to fulfill an assignment of speed or acceleration on the path. To obtain experimental results using an indoor positioning system, a quadrotor velocity observer becomes necessary; thus, a velocity observer and a constant disturbance estimator, based on the immersion and invariance technique (Astolfi et al. 2008), are proposed to complement the maneuvering controller. Timescale separation between the quadrotor translational and rotational dynamics is instrumental in the closed-loop stability analysis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by CONACyT through a posdoctoral research fellowship to Dr. José Luis Mendoza Soto.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica, CINVESTAV-IPN Av. Instituto Politécnico Nacional 2508, 07360, México, D. F., México

    José Luis Mendoza-Soto, José J. Corona-Sánchez & H. Rodríguez- Cortés

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  1. José Luis Mendoza-Soto
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  2. José J. Corona-Sánchez
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  3. H. Rodríguez- Cortés
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Correspondence to José Luis Mendoza-Soto.

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Mendoza-Soto, J.L., Corona-Sánchez, J.J. & Rodríguez- Cortés, H. Quadcopter Path Following Control. A Maneuvering Approach. J Intell Robot Syst 93, 73–84 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-018-0801-0

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