Mini Quadrotor UAV: Design and Experiment

The purpose of this work is to design a new-layout quadrotor UAS for experimental customized control systems validation. Geometrical and structural properties have been computed, whereas commercial-off-the-shelf equipments have been selected. The flight control system, both hardware and software has been custom developed; the same applies for the mathematical model describing the flight dynamics. Two Proportional- Derivative (PD) controllers have been designed and experimentally tested. A different control strategy with a state feedback controller has been implemented, assigning a robust eigenstructure and the desired dynamic specifications. An adaptive algorithm, which guarantees uniformly bounded response for both the inputs and the outputs, has been presented. A L1 adaptive controller has been studied and implemented, including the state predictor, the adaptive and the control laws. Tests with PD controller have shown slowly stable response even if numerical and vibrational noise carried on. In conclusion L1 adaptive controller permits to obtain optimal response characteristics and the low pass filter integrated in control law, combined with a Kalman filter, can reduce noise and correlate data between different sensors.