Adaptive tracking control of underactuated quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles via backstepping

This paper considers about the control problem for an underactuated quadrotor UAV system with model parameter uncertainty. Backstepping based techniques are utilized to design a nonlinear adaptive controller which can compensate for the mass uncertainty of the vehicle. Lyapunov based stability analysis shows that the proposed control design yields asymptotic tracking for the UAV´s motion in x, y, z direction and the yaw rotation, while keep the stability of the closed loop dynamics of the quadrotor UAV. Numerical simulation results are provided to show the good tracking performance of proposed control laws.