Attitude Control of MAVs using L1 Adaptive Algorithm

PID controllers offer high performance for Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs), but they have to be tuned for each MAV and even for each flight test. Moreover, MAV dynamics changes by time and consequently, PID controller performance decreases. Thus, an adaptive control system that compensates these changes is developed in this research. On the other hand, the size of the autopilot system is an important factor. Many adaptive control algorithms suffer from the time consuming computation and need for high memory. In this paper an L1 adaptive controller is developed that self tunes to each MAV and compensates changes in the MAV during its flight. The proposed controller is both simple and efficient. This autopilot system controls the pitch angle through the elevator commands. The simulation results show the efficiency of the proposed control system.

Keywords:

MAV , Adaptive Control , L1 Controller , Pitch Attitude Hold