Use of Quanser Aero 2 as a testbed for quadrotor nonlinear control techniques

Abstract

In this work, the educational and research device named Quanser Aero 2 is used as a way to experimentally test distinct quadrotor control strategies. The kit contains two propellers. In the proposed configuration, one propeller is used as the control input, and the other one is used to generate a well-defined and predefined disturbance input. First, a nonlinear dynamic inversion is proposed to make the system behave as a double integrator system, which is also an approach used in several quadrotor attitude and position controllers. After, as a way to test the approach, four distinct controllers are tested: a simple pole placement, a robust, an active disturbance rejection, and a robust + active disturbance rejection one. The results shows that the device is able to provide a testbed for some types of quadrotor control strategies, generating a repeatable scenario that allows a fair and direct comparison between the tested controllers.