Attitude-Tracking Control for Over-Actuated Tailless UAVs at Cruise Using Adaptive Dynamic Programming

Abstract

Using adaptive dynamic programming (ADP), this paper presents a novel attitude-tracking scheme for over-actuated tailless unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that integrates control and control allocation while accounting for nonlinearity and nonaffine control inputs. The proposed method uses the idea of nonlinear dynamic inversion to create an augmented system and converts the optimal tracking problem into an optimal regulation problem using a discounted performance function. Drawing inspiration from incremental control, this method achieves optimal tracking control for the nonaffine system by simply using a critic-only structure. Moreover, the unique design of the performance function ensures robustness against model uncertainties and external disturbances. The ADP method was found to outperform traditional control architectures that separate control and control allocation, achieving the same level of attitude-tracking performance through a more optimized approach. Furthermore, unlike many recent optimal controllers for nonaffine systems, our method does not require any model identifiers and demonstrates robustness. The superiority of the ADP-based approach is verified through two simulated scenarios, and its internal mechanism is further discussed. The theoretical analysis of robustness and stability is also provided.

Research on autonomous solution methods for unmanned autonomous systems considering performance constraints

“…Reference [2] proposes an over-actuated attitude tracking scheme for a nonlinear and non-affine control input in UAV using Adaptive Dynamic Programming (ADP) [3] technique. This approach utilizes the concept of nonlinear dynamic inversion to establish an augmented system and transforms the optimal tracking problem into an optimal regulation problem using discounted performance functions.…”

“…pqrrepresent the roll, pitch, and yaw rates respectively,  represents the actuator deflection, Q and R are a positive definite matrix,  representing the upper bound of the deflection. Reference [2] compares the control scheme based on ADP with the INDIPI [4] control scheme, and the specific results are shown in Figure 3. It indicates that the ADP-based method exhibits good convergence and provides better flight quality compared to INDIPI.…”

Design of Pseudo-Command Restricted Controller for Tailless Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Based on Attainable Moment Set

“…And they are usually calculated offline and are used online. Starting from the basic idea of control allocation, as Equation (15) shows, a set of geometric mappings corresponding to the achievable boundaries of effectors deflection and torque are ultimately obtained.…”

“…Theorem 1. When the model of TUAVs (15) satisfies the above assumptions and is under the control of control commands ( 25) and ( 30), the closed-loop system has the following characteristics:…”

“…Considering safety flight envelope constraints for the high-fidelity ICE model, a flight protection framework is proposed to guide the design of the NDI controller to prevent loss of control [14]. He [15] utilized NDI and adaptive dynamic programming to design an attitude controller to ensure robustness against model uncertainties and external disturbances while achieving optimal tracking control. The research conducted by these scholars has offered valuable solutions for the design of controllers for low-aspect-ratio TUAVs.…”