Comprehensive reconstructions and predictive control for quadrotor UAV information gathering tracking missions based on fully actuated system approaches

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel approach to the comprehensive reconstruction and predictive control (PC) of the quadrotor UAV for information-gathering missions, employing fully actuated system (FAS) approaches. Unlike conventional PC methods applied to a quadrotor UAV with hybrid constraints, our work integrates reconstructions of the system model, hybrid constraints, and the receding horizon performance index into to an integrated tracking control scheme within the FAS-PC framework. Specifically, the under-actuated quadrotor UAV model is reconstructed into a full-actuated model to inject full-actuation properties. And the implicit hybrid constraints that arise from the model reconstruction are explicitly transformed and decoupled. Simultaneously, the cascaded predictive algorithm is established that the new time-varying input constraints are solved in each predictive horizon, and then the nonlinear optimization problem is decoupled into four linear convex optimization problems subject to the corresponding decoupled linear constraints and the pre-addressed input constraints. Within this framework, the intrinsic complexities, nonlinearities, and interdependencies of the quadrotor UAV system model, along with hybrid constraints and the optimization dilemma, are considerably diminished. This reduction significantly eases computational demands, enabling satisfactory real-time performance. Furthermore, the selection of predictive parameters guarantees the stability of the resultant tracking error closed-loop system. Finally, the efficacy of the proposed method is validated through two sets of flight missions, conducted via simulation and practical experimentation, respectively.

Keywords: Fully actuated system approach; Hybrid constraints; Nonlinear predictive control; Quadrotor UAV information gathering tracking mission.