Dynamics and Control of Drones and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Ranjan Vepa · 2023
Chapter 11 is dedicated to the dynamics and control of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles. Drones and their usage for a wide variety of applications have gained considerable popularity in recent years. After a discussion of the basic reference frames as applied to drones, dynamics of generic drones is considered. The dynamics of the drone is defined by the Newtonian translational dynamics and Eulerʼs equations of motion. The aerodynamic forces and moments are generated by the thrusters or propellers, the aerodynamic lift generated by the lifting bodies if any and the drag forces and moments generated by the droneʼs body. The generic equations are specialised to the cases of several specific multi-rotor drone architectures. The dynamics and feedback control of quadrotor drones, including optimal controller synthesis principles for drones, are discussed. Control laws for linear quadratic regulation and H ∞ optimal control are designed by minimising a quadratic performance index, using a linearised model to describe the drone motion along its trajectory. The dynamics and control theory are applied to a host of drone configurations. Optimal controller synthesis for generic multi-rotor drones is also presented.