RESUMO
This paper develops a trajectory tracking control design algorithm to be applied in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The strategy is simple but effective and it is based on linear algebra theory. The proposed approach reforms the column space of a system of linear equations at each sampling time to ensure the tracking objective when environmental disturbances appear. This new formulation ensures a uniform signal without affecting the error convergence to zero (demonstration available), which is one of the main contributions of this work. A statistical method is used to tune the system control minimizing a pre-defined cost function. In addition, the convergence to zero of the tracking errors is demonstrated in this work. Finally, the controller's effectiveness is tested through several simulations in realistic test scenarios in the presence of disturbances.
RESUMO
Nowadays, the energetic cost of flying in electric-powered UAVs is one of the key challenges. The continuous evolution of electrical energy storage sources is overcome by the great amount of energy required by the propulsion system. Therefore, the on-board energy is a crucial factor that needs to be further analyzed. In this work, different control strategies applied to a generic UAV propulsion system are considered and a lithium polymer battery dynamic model is included as the propulsion system energy source. Several simulations are carried out for each control strategy, and a quantitative evaluation of the influence of each control law over the actual energy consumed by the propulsion system is reported. This energy, which is delivery by the battery, is next compared against a well-known control-effort-based index. The results and analysis suggest that conclusions regarding energy savings based on control effort signals should be drawn carefully, because they do not directly represent the actual consumed energy.
