Robust hybrid controller for quadrotor UAV under disturbances

With the increasing use of autonomous quadrotors in daily activities, the development of robust tracking controllers which allows these vehicles to reach the planned location has become extremely important. In this paper, a novel hybrid control strategy is designed for an uncertain quadrotor affected by external disturbances. A robust sliding mode controller is used to stabilise the vehicle orientation. In addition, an adaptive rule is developed for the online tuning of the switching gains. Also, a finite-time control law is designed for the quadrotor position, in which a non-singular terminal sliding mode control (NTSMC) is combined with the supertwisting (ST) algorithm, to obtain fast convergence with reduced chattering influence. To prove the stability of the entire system and calculate the adaptive laws, Lyapunov stability concept is used. Using the proposed hybrid controller, fast convergence, reduced tracking errors and strong robustness are all ensured. Finally, the performance of the proposed control scheme is tested under the influence of complex disturbances. Simulation results show the efficacy of the suggested method in term of path tracking and robustness.