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PSO and GA tuned conventional and fractional order PID controllers for quadrotor control

Hasan Saribas (Department of Avionics, Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Eskişehir Technical University, Eskişehir, Turkey)
Sinem Kahvecioglu (Department of Avionics, Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Eskişehir Technical University, Eskişehir, Turkey)

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology

ISSN: 0002-2667

Article publication date: 17 August 2021

Issue publication date: 6 September 2021

258

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to compare the performance of the conventional and fractional order proportional-integral-derivative (PID and FOPID) controllers tuned with a particle swarm optimization (PSO) and genetic algorithm (GA) for quadrotor control.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, the gains of the controllers were tuned using PSO and GA, which are included in the heuristic optimization methods. The tuning processes of the controller’s gains were formulated as optimization problems. While generating the objective functions (cost functions), four different decision criteria were considered separately: integrated summation error (ISE), integrated absolute error, integrated time absolute error and integrated time summation error (ITSE).

Findings

According to the simulation results and comparison tables that were created, FOPID controllers tuned with PSO performed better performances than PID controllers. In addition, the ITSE criterion returned better results in control of all axes except for altitude control when compared to the other cost functions. In the control of altitude with the PID controller, the ISE criterion showed better performance.

Originality/value

While a conventional PID controller has three parameters (Kp, Ki, Kd) that need to be tuned, FOPID controllers have two additional parameters (µ). The inclusion of these two extra parameters means more flexibility in the controller design but much more complexity for parameter tuning. This study reveals the potential and effectiveness of PSO and GA in tuning the controller despite the increased number of parameters and complexity.

Keywords

Citation

Saribas, H. and Kahvecioglu, S. (2021), "PSO and GA tuned conventional and fractional order PID controllers for quadrotor control", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 93 No. 7, pp. 1243-1253. https://doi.org/10.1108/AEAT-08-2020-0185

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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