Attitude Controller for UAV First-Order Acceleration Coefficients Tracking

This paper proposes a novel attitude control methodology for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The core of the approach is a decomposition of the vehicle’s orientation into a distinct horizontal tilt component and a yaw rotation. This reformulation provides a principled theoretical framework by redefining attitude error within an acceleration-coefficient space, which linearizes and decouples the horizontal acceleration dynamics—a significant simplification over conventional Euler-angle or quaternion-based models. From an engineering perspective, this framework enables the direct generation of angular velocity commands that guarantee first-order tracking of desired acceleration coefficients. This leads to a substantial reduction in the computational complexity of the outer-loop controller, enhances trajectory tracking accuracy, and ensures predictable performance under given attitude constraints and angular velocity limits. Simulation results demonstrate the method’s superior performance compared to standard techniques, validating its dual value as both a theoretically-grounded control design tool and an effective solution for high-precision UAV navigation in real-world applications.