Predefined-Time Tracking Control of Fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles subject to external disturbance and unmodeled dynamics

In this paper, predefined-time tracking control of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) subject to external disturbance and unmodeled dynamics is studied. First, the nonlinear dynamics of the UAV are converted to the second-order system through feedback linearization. Then, a fixed-time observer is addressed to estimate the disturbance and uncertainty. Finally, a novel predefined-time controller is designed to drive the tracking error to zero within a predefined time. Numerical simulation and comparison demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has a faster convergence rate, and the control input is smoother near the settling time.