Performance Recovery Tracking-Controller for Quadcopters via Invariant Dynamic Surface Approach

In this paper, a robust position tracking controller is proposed using an invariant dynamic surface approach in a cascade control system structure. There are two main contributions. The first is to design a dynamic surface giving the desired tracking-performance with a time-varying cutoff frequency automatically adjusted by the proposed auto-tuner, which can enhance the reliability of the resulting control system. The second is to derive the inner- and outer-loop control laws driving the closed-loop trajectories to the dynamic surface, incorporating a disturbance observer with the use of only nominal plant parameters. A reduction of plant parameter dependence can be accomplished by the second contribution. The realistic simulation results confirm the advantages of the proposed technique.