Optimal Tuning Based Linear Active Disturbance Rejection Control Applied to a Quadcopter

This paper proposes a novel control approach called the Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) for the altitude and attitude control of an unmanned quadcopter with disturbances. The quadcopter is an underactuated system subject to parametric perturbations, non-linearity, unmodeled dynamics, strong coupling, and external disturbances. Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR), an optimal control method, is used for the tuning of ADRC. The proposed control scheme is verified in simulation studies with the presence of sensor noise and external disturbances. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly reduce the chattering phenomenon, owing to the estimation capability of the Extended State Observer (ESO). The proposed method also improves the robustness against modeling errors and disturbances and smoothly tracks the reference trajectory compared to PID and sliding mode control (SMC).