Transverse Feedback Control for Path Following with Quadrotors

This work presents a path following controller for a quadrotor vehicle. A smooth, dynamic, feedback controller is designed that allows the quadrotor to follow both closed and non-closed embedded curves while maintaining a desired speed, a desired acceleration or while stabilizing desired points along the curves. The nonlinear dynamic model of the quadrotor is transformed into a linear system via a coordinate and feedback linearization transformation. Once transformed, a path following controller is designed that guarantees invariance of the path while enforcing the desired motion along the path.

A path following controller for a quadrotor helicopter is designed using the concepts of transverse feedback linearization and dynamic extension. This methods allows us to achieve the property of path invariance. The quadrotor can track a speed profile along the path or asymptotically approach particular points on the path. Simulation results demonstrate the capabilities of the path following controller under mild modeling errors. We hope to implement the controller on a quadrotor platform as part of future work.