Development and Implementation of a Adaptive Fuzzy Control System for a VTOL Vehicle in Hovering Mode

The studies in aerial vehicles modeling and control have been increased rapidly recently. This paper presents the modeling and control of a four rotor vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicle. The modeling of the VTOL vehicle will be described by using Euler-Newton equations. In order to stable this vehicle and control the attitude of that, classical PID controller and a fuzzy system that adjusts the PID controller gains, have been designed. Although fuzzy control of various dynamical systems has been presented in literature, application of this technology to aerial vehicle control is quite new. This system has nonlinear characteristics where classical control methods are not adequate for stabilize that. On the other hand, fuzzy control is nonlinear and it is thus suitable for nonlinear system control. Matlab Simulink has been used to test, analyze and compare the performance of the controllers in simulations. Finally this presented controller will be implemented on a real vehicle and performance of that will be showed. This study showed that although, both of the classical PID and the fuzzy self-tuning PID controllers, can control the system properly, the second controller performed better than the classical PID controller.