Tracking controllers for small UAVs with wind disturbances: Theory and flight results

This work outlines two approaches for small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) performing surveillance with fixed cameras. Small UAVs present significant control challenges, due to relatively low-bandwidth actuation and significant disturbances due to wind. This work features implementations of a spatial sliding mode controller and a receding-horizon kinodynamic controller. The spatial sliding mode controller is designed to follow a desired aircraft path which places the camera-footprint on the desired locations, while the kinodynamic controller is designed to directly track a camera-footprint path. Since our objective is surveillance, we aim to compare the effectiveness of each controller in tracking a desired sensor path. Discussion of each controller is followed by simulation and flight test results.