Simulations studies of mini-hexacopter controllers

Abstract

Consulta en la Biblioteca ETSI Industriales (Riunet)

[EN] In this work has been developed the simulation of a hexarotor helicopter to solve the tracking problem for an unmanned aerial vehicle. To understand the performance of the hexarotor helicopter, has been studied the system through several books and papers and has been modelled following the dynamics derived from the Newton-Euler equations and using the Lagrangian approach. In order to perform the path tracking, has been studied different methods like Cubic Spline Interpolation and Rapidly-Exploring Random Trees, also optimization algorithms for smooth the path. The developed trajectory generator uses cubic spline curves, which interpolates a path through defined waypoints and avoiding defined obstacles. The obstacle avoidance algorithm moves the path into a loop which analyse it and generate intermediate waypoints until the path is free of collisions. The developed trajectory generator allows to introduce 3D linear coordinates waypoints directly from the terminal, by loading a file with the saved waypoints or with the method of click-on-map. For perform the tracking control several linear and non-linear methods have been studied, focusing in Proportional-Integral-Derivative algorithms and Model Predictive Control. The helicopter tracking control is finally carried out dividing the system in four subsystems, position, altitude, attitude and orientation, being the controllers synthesis based on PID algorithms with delay compensation. The simulator has been developed using Matlab/Simulink to make experimental tests and study the dynamics of the hexacopter under different control methods and controller values, showing the desired tracking results and graphs to understand the flight performance.