Error-Based Active Disturbance Rejection Altitude/Attitude Control of a Quadrotor UAV.

The paper focuses on controlling a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The highly nonlinear dynamics of the system, together with its under-actuated nature and strong cross-couplings, make the quadrotor control a challenging problem. To solve it, a robust strategy based on a concept of active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) is proposed. Its particular, error-based version is used to minimize sensing requirements and thus allows a more practical realization of the altitude/attitude trajectory following task without the availability of reference time derivatives. Three distinct variations of the error-based ADRC algorithms are derived and numerically tested. The findings of this research form a guide for end-users on how to select appropriate ADRC structure for quadrotor control depending on specific performance requirements and working conditions.