Title
Pitch Loop Control of a VTOL UAV Using Fractional Order Controller
Abstract
Pitch loop control is the fundamental tuning step for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and has significant impact on the flight. In this paper, a fractional order strategy is designed to control the pitch loop of a VTOL UAV. First, an auto-regressive with exogenous input (ARX) model is acquired and converted to a first-order plus time delay (FOPTD) model. Next, based on the FOPTD model, a fractional order [proportional integral] (FO[PI]) controller is designed. Then, an integer order PI controller based on the modified Ziegler-Nichols (MZNs) tuning rule and a general integer order proportional integral derivative (PID) controller are also designed for comparison following three design specifications. Simulation results have shown that the proposed fractional order controller outperforms both the MZNs PI controller and the integer order PID controller in terms of robustness and disturbance rejection. At last, ARX model based system identification of AggieAir VTOL platform is achieved with experimental flight data.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1007/s10846-013-9912-9
Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems
Keywords
Field
DocType
VTOL UAV,Fractional order controller,Attitude control,Pitch loop control,ARX model,FOPTD,PID,MZN PI,FO[PI]
Loop control,Integer,Control theory,PID controller,Takeoff and landing,Control theory,Robustness (computer science),Attitude control,Control engineering,Engineering,System identification
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
73
1-4
0921-0296
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
6
0.48
9
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jinlu Han1442.51
Long Di2303.22
Calvin Coopmans3233.62
Yangquan Chen42257242.16