Sliding Mode Control for Fast & Accurate Trajectory Tracking in an Unconventional Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

An unconventional drone design and controller for fast and accurate trajectory tracking are proposed in this paper. A dynamic model was developed, the controllability is analysed and physical parameters to maximise controllability are identified. A multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) sliding mode controller via the unit vector approach was considered. A novel discrete sliding mode controller was designed via Lyapunov theory to guarantee convergence to the sliding surface. A discrete sliding mode controller with model-reference tracking was further developed to improve performance. Finally simulations of step, tracking response and disturbance rejection with significant non-idealities and non-linearities were performed to illustrate the performance of the design and controllers.