Twistor-based integrated double hyperbolic sliding mode control for time-varying quadrotor UAV systems

Abstract

This study pioneers the application of the twistor framework to address pose-coupled disturbances in UAVs with time-varying payloads. The twistor-based time-varying UAV dynamics concurrently describes translational and rotational dynamics, eliminating the need for algebraic transformation operations inherent in decoupled approaches while avoiding the parameter redundancy and normalization constraint of dual quaternion. Although twistor resolves fundamental dynamic limitations of conventional approach, complex disturbances from the time-varying payload require controllers with enhanced robustness and efficiency—a challenge unmet by existing twistor-based framework. To tackle pose-coupled disturbances within this framework, a double hyperbolic sliding mode controller (DH-SMC) featuring a novel double hyperbolic reaching law is proposed in this study. Results from numerical simulations and hard ware in the loop (HIL) experiments demonstrate that the proposed DH-SMC significantly outperforms constant-velocity SMC (CV-SMC), achieving a 29.8% reduction in energy consumption, 15.1% faster convergence, and a 70.3% decrease in maximum steady-state position error, confirming its superior robustness and real-time capability.