Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Visual Interface for Simulation and Control Development

Abstract

Quadrotor control is an exciting research area. Despite last years developments, some aspects demand a deeper analysis: How a quadrotor operates in challenging trajectories, how to define trajectory limits, or how changing physical characteristics of the device affects the performance. A visual interface development platform is a valuable tool to support this effort, and one of these tools is briefly described in this Chapter. The quadrotor model uses Newton-Euler equations with Euler angles, and considers the effect of air drag and propellers’ speed dynamics, as well as measurement noise and limits for propeller speeds. The tool is able to test any device just by setting a few parameters. A three-dimensional optimal trajectory defined by a set of waypoints and corresponding times, is calculated with the help of a Minimum Snap Trajectory planning algorithm. Small Angle Control, Desired Thrust Vector (DTV) Control and Geometric Tracking Control are the available strategies in the tool for quadrotor attitude and trajectory following control. The control gains are calculated using Particle Swarm Optimization. Root Mean Square (RMS) error and Basin of Attraction are employed for validation. The tool allows to choose the control strategy by visual evaluation on a graphical user interface (GUI), or analyzing the numerical results. The tool is modular and open to other control strategies, and is available in GitHub.