Combined Observer-Based State Feedback and Optimized P/PI Control for a Robust Operation of Quadrotors

This paper deals with a discrete-time observer-based state feedback control design by taking into consideration bounded parameter uncertainty, actuator faults, and stochastic noise in an inner control loop which is extended in a cascaded manner by outer PI- and P-control loops for velocity and position regulation. The aim of the corresponding subdivision of the quadrotor model is the treatment of the control design in a systematic manner. In the inner loop, linear matrix inequality techniques are employed for the placement of poles into a desired area within the complex z-plane. A robustification of the design towards noise is achieved by optimizing both control and observer gains simultaneously guaranteeing stability in a predefined bounded state domain. This procedure helps to reduce the sensitivity of the inner control loop towards changes induced by the outer one. Finally, a model-based optimization process is employed to tune the parameters of the outer P/PI controllers. To allow for the validation of accurate trajectory tracking, a comparison of the novel approach with the use of a standard extended Kalman filter-based linear-quadratic regulator synthesis is presented to demonstrate the superiority of the new design.