Nonlinear control for ground-air trajectory tracking by a hybrid vehicle: theory and experiments

A nonlinear scheme for controlling a hybrid vehicle with capacities for terrestrial and aerial displacements is proposed in this paper. The nonlinear model of the vehicle is obtained from the Newton-Euler formalism taking into account two operation modes (ground and air). The attitude controller has been developed step by step for the full complete system and stabilizes both operation modes with the goal to produce a seamless transition between them. It has adaptive properties that helps to counteract the effects produced by the nonlinear uncertainties in the model. The nonlinear position controllers are conceived considering the gravity force for tracking an aerial or ground trajectory. Numerical simulations and real-time experiments are carried out for validating and verifying the good performance of the proposed algorithms. (C) 2019, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.