2011 11th International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems

Oct. 26-29, 2011 in KINTEX, Gyeonggi-do, Korea

Trajectory Tracking Control of Quadrotor UAV

Sang-hyun Lee1 , Seung Hoon Kang2 and Youdan Kim3
1

School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-744, Korea
(Tel : +82-2-880-7392; E-mail: veritys1@snu.ac.kr)
2
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-744, Korea
(Tel : +82-2-880-7392; E-mail: gl9696@snu.ac.kr)
3
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-744, Korea
(Tel : +82-2-880-7398; E-mail: ydkim@snu.ac.kr)
Abstract: Quadrotor is an attractive flying subject in aerospace control fields since it has a simple structure, but
complex dynamics. Control engineers have developed various algorithms to control this subtle vehicle. However, it is
still very difficult to control quadrotor because of its high nonlinearities. In this paper, the new controller is proposed for
the guidance and control of the quadrotor. An attitude controller and position controller are designed based on feedback
linearization. In this way, the under-actuated system is divided into two fully-actuated subsystems. Furthermore, 1-2-3
type Euler angles are used so that the quadrotor position can be controlled freely regardless of the yaw angle. As a
result, the quadrotor system can be exactly linearized reflecting most of the information that original dynamics has. To
show the performance of this controller, numerical simulation is performed for the position tracking.
Keywords: Quadrotor, Feedback Linearization, Inver Euler Angle, Linear Control, Nonlinear Control.
which rotates body axis in the order of , , not

1. INTRODUCTION

, , , the position can be controlled linearly

regardless of yaw angle. Finally, the feedback
linearization method is used for a full linear quadrotor
model without approximations. And numerical
simulation is performed to verify the performance of the
proposed controller.

UAVs(Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) have been

developed for performing various missions in the
military and civil areas. Quadrotors are one of UAVs
which consist of two rods and four actuators as shown
in the Fig.1. Even though its structure is simple, the
quadrotor is a VTOL(Vertical Task-off and Landing)
and can perform most of missions that helicopters can
do. In some aspects, the quadrotors have better
maneuverability than helicopters because quadrotors
have four rotors, which can increase the mobility and
loadability.
Even though quadrotors do not have complicated
structure, it is not easy to design its controller. The
quadrotor is a dynamically unstable and under-actuated
nonlinear system which makes the controller design
hard. To deal with these difficulties, many researchers
have tried to approximate the original dynamic models,
or to linearize the systems on certain trim points
especially on the hovering attitude.
In most of the research works, body angular
velocities and attitude angles change rates of the
quadrotor are regarded as the same. This approximation
is true for the case that a quadrotor is hovering.
However, to make quadrotor perform high maneuver,
this is not true anymore. Also, to design position
controllers, yaw angle is usually set to zero since it is
difficult to handle the yaw angle. Consequently, it is
difficult to make the quadrotor follow the desired
trajectory in the inertial frame.
In this paper, the quadrotor system is modeled with
attitude angles change rates, not approximating
{ p, q, r} to {,, } . Also, the attitude controller and

2. SYSTEM MODELING
First, let us define 1-2-3 type Euler angles. In normal
3-2-1 type Euler angles, the body fixed frame is rotated
in the order of , , , that is rotating around the
z-axis first, y-axis second, and x-axis finally. In 1-2-3
type Euler angle, however, the body fixed frame is
rotated in the order of , , . As a result, the
transformation velocity matrix and the rotation velocity
matrix between the inertial and body fixed frame are
represented as

C C

Rt = S S C + C S
C S C + S S

C C
Rr = S C
S

And,

us

S C (1)
C C

0
0
1

(2)

define

 [x

z]

and

 [ ] as the position vector and the attitude

T

position controller are designed separately, so that some

position controllers outputs act as inputs to the attitude
controller, which can solve the under-actuated dynamic
problems. In addition, using 1-2-3 type Euler angles,

978-89-93215-03-8 98560/11/$15 ICROS

let

S
C
0

C S
S S S + C C
C S S + S C

angle vector of the quadrotor in the inertial frame,

respectably.

281

Also,

V  [u v w]

and

Faero = K tV
Fgrav = mRtT G

(9)

Taero = K r

The forces F and torques T produced by a propeller

system of a quadrotor are:

0
d (F F )
2
4

F = 0 , T = d ( F3 F1 )
(10)
4
4

Fi
c (1)i +1 Fi
i =1
i =1

Finally, using equations (6), (7), (8) and (9), the

equations of dynamics of the quadrotor can be
expressed in the inertial frame as.
1
1
 = G Rt K t RtT  + Rt F
(11)
m
m

Fig. 1 Inertial and body fixed frame of a quadrotor.

 [ p q r]

 = Rr1 J 1 ( Rr JRr ) Rr1 J 1 K r Rr

are the translation velocity vector

R
R
Rr1 r  + r   + Rr1 J 1T

and the rotation velocity vector in the body fixed frame.

The relations between these vectors can be written as:
 = RtV
(3)
= Rr
where the skew-symmetric matrix S () is defined as
follows:
0
S () = 3
2

0
1

2
1
0

3. CONTROLLER DESIGN
The quadrotor is an under-actuated system, because six
state variables {x, y, z, , , } should be controlled
even though it has only four inputs {F1 , F2 , F3 , F4 } .
Therefore, in most cases, only some of the system
variables, for example {x, y, z, } , are usually
controlled.
In this study, the attitude and position are separately
controlled. In the attitude dynamic equations, there are
three inputs {T1 , T2 , T3} and three outputs { , , } .
Therefore, the attitude equation of dynamics is
controllable. However, in the case of position dynamics,
there is only one control input F3 but three

(4)

Using S () , we have
Rt = Rt S ()

(5)
Differentiating equation (3) with respect to time gives
 = R V + R V = R V + R S ()V = R (V + V )
t

(6)
 = R  + Rr  + Rr  

Using the Newtons laws in the inertial frame, the

dynamic equations of motion including forces and
moments can be obtained as
Fext = mV + (mV )
(7)
 + ( J )
T = J
ext

where

m and

(12)

outputs {x, y, z} . This means that the position dynamics

cannot guarantee the controllability. In this study, this
under-actuated problem is solved making and as
new control inputs to the position dynamics. As a result,
the position controller can have three inputs { , , F3}
and three outputs {x, y, z} . This idea seems reasonable
since the quadrotor itself can be regarded as an actuator
system which has its angles as outputs. Figure 2 shows
the brief schematic structure of the controller.

J = diag[ J x , J y , J z ] are the mass and the

total inertia matrix of a quadrotor, respectively, and

Fext , Text are external forces and torques as
Fext = F Faero Fgrav

(8)
Text = T Taero
where the aerodynamic reaction force Faero , the
gravitational reaction force Fgrav , and the aerodynamic
reaction torque Taero acting on a quadrotor can be
expressed as

Fig. 2 Controller structure.

282

3.1 ATTITUDE CONTROLLER DESIGN

Lets consider the equations of motion of the attitude
dynamics. Assume that is an output, and using the
feedback linearization method, the equations can be
written as
y =
y = 
(13)

y =  = v
where v is a synthetic control input to the linearized
system. From the attitude dynamic equations, the
original control input T can be easily derived from v
as

1
1
Rt K t RtT  + Rt F
m
m
1
1
= G K t + Rt F
m
m
1
1
= G K  + U
m
m
If and are small enough,
w = G

+R

( (R

) )

/ ) + (Rr / ) 

C C
C S

U = Rt F = S S C + C S S S S + C C
C S C + S S C S S + S C

S F3 U1

= S C F3 = U 2
C C F3 U 3

(14)

= JRr v + ( Rr JRr ) + K r Rr

+ J (Rr / ) + (Rr / ) 

J is always inversible and Rr is always

inversible except | |= / 2 . Therefore, T always

Here,

1 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0  1
0 0 1 0 0 0
+
0 0 0 0 0  0
0 0 0 0 1 0

0 0 0 0 0  0

0 0
0 0
v1
0 0
v2
1 0
v
0 0 3

0 1

(15)

(19)

F3 = U12 + U 2 2 + U 32

Finally, U can be obtained as the following function

of w .
U = mw + mG + K t
(21)
The same control canonical form in the attitude
controller can be used.

There are many approaches to design a controller for

this linear system. In this study, the nonzero set point
controller (NZSP) is adopted. The objective of NZSP
controller is to minimize the following quadratic cost
function.
J = xT Qx + uT Ru dt
0

S 0

S C 0
C C F3

The relationship between {U1 ,U 2 ,U 3} and { , , F3}

can be easily derived using the relation,
cos 2 + sin 2 = 1 as

U 2 2 + U 32
= sgn(U1 ) arccos

2
U1 + U 2 2 + U 3 2

(20)
U3
= sgn(U 2 ) arccos

U 2 2 + U 32

exists regardless of v .
The control canonical form of the above system can
be written as
 0

0
 0
 =
0
 0

 0

K t and Kt are almost

same.
Because and are regarded as the new inputs of
the position dynamics, the following U can be
considered as a new input of the system.

T = JRr ( v + Rr1 J 1 ( Rr JRr ) + Rr1 J 1 K r Rr

1
r

(18)

x 0


x 0
y 0
=
y 0

z 0

z 0


(16)

where x and u are the error state and the error

control, respectively
3.2 POSITION CONTROLLER DESIGN
The position controller can also be designed using
the feedback linearization method. By choosing as
the output, the following relations can be derived.
y =
y = 
(17)


y = = w
where w is a synthetic control input of the feedback
linearized system. Using Eq. (11), w can be expressed
as follows

1 0 0 0 0 x 0
0 0 0 0 0 x 1
0 0 1 0 0 y 0
+
0 0 0 0 0 y 0
0 0 0 0 1 z 0

0 0 0 0 0 z 0

0 0
0 0
w1
0 0
w2
1 0
w3
0 0

0 1

(22)

4. NUMERICAL SIMULATION
In order to verify the performance of the proposed
controller scheme, numerical simulation is performed.
Figure 3 shows the reference trajectory and the actual
position of the quadrotor. As shown in Fig.3, the
trajectory follows the reference very well. Figure 4
shows the reference and the actual response of the
positions {x, y, z} of the quadrotor.

283

Fig. 3 The position and reference during tracking the

trajectory.

Fig. 6 Force control inputs.

5. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the dynamic modeling of a quadrotor is
developed and the trajectory following controller is
designed. The quadrotor is an under-actuated and highly
nonlinear system. In this study, the attitude and position
controllers are separately designed. The position
controllers outputs are considered as inputs to the
attitude controller, which can overcome the
uncontrollability of the under-actuated system. Using
the feedback linearization method, the linear controller
is designed for the trajectory following. The 1-2-3 type
Euler angles are used for the purpose of the system
linearization. The performance of the proposed
controller is verified through numerical simulation.

Fig. 4 Time plots of positions and references.

As shown in Fig. 5, attitude angles change during the
trajectory following according to its desired references.
Figure 6 shows the input histories.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Authors gratefully acknowledge the support from
UTRC(Unmanned technology Research Center) at
KAIST(Korea Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology), originally funded by DAPA, ADD

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Fig. 5 Time plots of attitude angles and references.

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