Trajectory tracking control of thrust-vectoring UAVs

In this paper a geometric approach to the trajectory tracking control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with thrust vectoring capabilities is proposed. The control problem is developed within the framework of geometric control theory, yielding a control law that is independent of any parametrization of the configuration space. The proposed design works seamlessly when the thrust vectoring capability is limited, by prioritizing position over attitude tracking. The control law guarantees almost-global asymptotic tracking of a desired full-pose (attitude and position) trajectory that is compatible with the platform underactuation according to a specific trackability condition. Finally, a numerical example is presented to test the proposed control law on a tilt-rotor quadcopter UAV. The generality of the control strategy can be exploited for a broad class of UAVs with thrust vectoring capabilities. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.