ADRC trajectory tracking control based on PSO algorithm for a quad-rotor

A quad-rotor UAV is a typical under-actuated, strong coupled nonlinear system with parameter uncertainty and un-modeled disturbance. For the sake of tracking the desired trajectory, considering these characteristics, an Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) is introduced in this paper which divides the nested closed-loops control system into four independent channels. ADRC has the capacity of estimating and compensating overall disturbance to improve the system performance significantly. Then Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is put forward to adjust and optimize parameters of ADRC so as to enhance the system design efficiency. Finally it is demonstrated that ADRC based on PSO algorithm has much better performance such as shorter settling time, less overshoot and smaller attitude angle tracking error than classical ADRC in various numerical simulations.