A novel firefighter quadrotor UAV with tilting rotors: Modeling and control

A firefighter quadrotor is a type of drone that assists firefighters in extinguishing fires and protecting their lives from potential hazards. This article addresses the modeling and control of a novel firefighter quadrotor. This quadrotor is equipped with a hose and a water spraying mechanism for extinguishing fires. It also features tiltable rotors that enable motion decoupling. This particular structure of the quadrotor has not been previously investigated. The dynamic modeling of the system, which is performed using the Newton-Euler method, considers the effects of rotor tilt capability and variations in mass, moment of inertia, and center of mass due to the load carrying. Next, Three controllers are designed: PID, adaptive sliding mode, and super-twisting integral sliding mode, and their stability is proved using the Lyapunov second method. Two simulation scenarios are then conducted to assess the performance of the controllers in the firefighting mission of high-rise buildings under uncertainty and disturbance. The simulation results demonstrate that the super-twisting integral sliding mode controller outperforms the other two in terms of error reduction and robustness.