Controlling a VTOL in 2-DOF Subspaces

Abstract

Abstract-A switching controller for vertical take off and landing (VTOL) vehicle is presented. Since the entire system belongs to a class of underactuated systems, it is decomposed in to three fully-actuated subsystems. Then, a set of constraints on the rotor speeds are given to cancel out some nonlinearities in input, hence ensure to obtain an affine in control dynamics that enables us to derive local feedback linearizing controllers and together with some associated Lyapunov functions. Finally, a controller scheduler based on Lyapunov functions is invoked to select the subsystem to be controlled and achieve the desired tracking motion. An illustration is given to show the effectiveness of the controller.