Robust active disturbance attenuation control of an uncertain quadrotor

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this research is to design a robust active disturbance attenuation control (RADAC) technique combined with an extended high gain observer (EHGO) and low pass filter (LPF).

Design/methodology/approach

For designing a RADAC technique, the sliding mode control (SMC) method is used. Since the standard method of SMC exhibits a chattering phenomenon in the controller, a multilayer sliding mode surface is designed for avoiding the chattering. In addition, to attenuate the unwanted uncertainties and disturbances (UUDs), the techniques of EHGO and LPF are deployed. Besides acting as a patch for disturbance attenuation, the EHGO design estimates the state variables. To investigate the stability and effectiveness of the designed control algorithm, the stability analysis followed by the simulation study is presented.

Findings

The major findings include the design of a chattering-free RADAC controller based on the multilayer sliding mode surface. Furthermore, a criterion of integrating the LPF scheme within the EHGO scheme is also developed to attenuate matched and mismatched UUDs.

Practical implications

In practice, the quadrotor flight is opposed by different kinds of the UUDs. And, the model of the quadrotor is a highly nonlinear underactuated model. Thus, the dynamics of the quadrotor model become more complex and uncertain due to the additional UUDs. Hence, it is necessary to design a robust disturbance attenuation technique with the ability to estimate the state variables and attenuate the UUDs and also achieve the desired control objectives.

Originality/value

Designing control methods to attenuate the disturbances while assuming that the state variables are known is a common practice. However, investigating the uncertain plants with unknown states along with the disturbances is rarely taken in consideration for the control design. Hence, this paper presents a control algorithm to address the issues of the UUDs as well as investigate a criterion to reduce the chattering incurred in the controller due to the standard SMC algorithm.

Citation

Ahmed, N., Bhatia, A.k. and Ali Shah, S.A. (2022), "Robust active disturbance attenuation control of an uncertain quadrotor", International Journal of Intelligent Unmanned Systems, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 346-362. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJIUS-11-2020-0064