Nonlinear Modeling and Lyapunov Stability Based Controller Design of a Quadrotor UAV

Advances in information technology and hardware technology have led to the development of the capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Quadrotors are used in areas such as fire fighting, search and rescue, first aid kit delivery, surveillance, mapping, mineral exploration, agricultural spraying, cargo transportation, and defense industry. In order for quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles to perform these sensitive tasks, it is important to have a robust controller design. Robust control of unmanned aerial vehicles is an important issue that many researchers have been working on in recent years. In this work, nonlinear modeling of a quadrotor is performed. A Lyapunov stability-based robust controller has been realized to control altitude and attitude. Simulations were made under normal situations, uncertain parameters and Gaussian white noise. Rise time, overshoot and settling time values were examined under 3 different conditions and the results were compared. The simulations have proven the robustness of the designed controller under specified conditions.