DYNAMICS AND CONTROL OF DRONES

AND UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES

LECTURER: THINH HUYNH
ROAD MAPS
1. Basic principle of flight
2. Dynamics of a generic drone
3. Stability and control of drones
4. Quadrotor drones and unconventional drones
1. BASIC PRINCIPLE OF FLIGHT
Forces acting on an aircraft
 Lift: upward acting force that opposes weight and allows the
aircraft to rise into the air;
 Drag: backward aerodynamic resistance force when moving
through the air, including profile drag and induced drag;
 Thrust: forward acting force, produced by the power plants;
 Gravity: the weight of the aircraft.
 1. BASIC PRINCIPLE OF FLIGHT
Forces acting on an aircraft

Lift
Lift
Relative wind

Tail lift
Profile drag

Thrust
Induced drag Drag
Drag
Weight Weight
Wing lift
Weight
 1. BASIC PRINCIPLE OF FLIGHT
Flying control
 Fixed-wing aircraft

Operation of aileron

Operation of elevator
Operation of rudder
1. BASIC PRINCIPLE OF FLIGHT
Flying control
 Rotary-wing aircraft
1. BASIC PRINCIPLE OF FLIGHT
Flying control
 Aircraft with water jet actuators
 1. BASIC PRINCIPLE OF FLIGHT
Autonomous navigation
 Hardware components
 1. BASIC PRINCIPLE OF FLIGHT
Autonomous navigation
 Software components
 1. BASIC PRINCIPLE OF FLIGHT
Autonomous navigation
 Feedback architecture
 2. DYNAMICS OF A GENERIC DRONE
Defining of frames
 A minimum of two coordinate frames are essential
to model the dynamics of a drone:
 Inertial frame: fixed in space as Newton’s laws of
motion are valid,
 Body-fixed frame: attached to the drone at its
(North)
center of mass and pointing along three
(East)
xI yI
directions in the body or axes of symmetry.
 zb: points along the principal or geometric axis,
 yb and xb: point along directions mutually
perpendicular to each other and to the zb axis.
zI
(Down)
 2. DYNAMICS OF A GENERIC DRONE
Euler angles
zI  The Euler angles are three angles to describe the
orientation of a rigid body with respect to a fixed
z2
yb coordinate system.

zb
ϕ

yI
xb
ψ θ

xI
x1
 2. DYNAMICS OF A GENERIC DRONE
Inertial frame to body frame transformation
zI

y1

ψ
yI I
I

ψ
xI x1
 2. DYNAMICS OF A GENERIC DRONE
Inertial frame to body frame transformation
z1
z2

θ
y1

θ x2

x1
 2. DYNAMICS OF A GENERIC DRONE
Inertial frame to body frame transformation

z2
yb

zb ϕ
ϕ y2

x2
 2. DYNAMICS OF A GENERIC DRONE
Inertial frame to body frame transformation
I I

pI  RbI (Θ ) pb , Θ  [   ]T
 2. DYNAMICS OF A GENERIC DRONE
State variables
Name Description
pn (xI) Inertial north position of vehicle expressed along xI in Fi
pe (yI) Inertial east position of vehicle expressed along yI in Fi
Pd (zI) Inertial down position of vehicle expressed along zI in Fi
u Ground velocity expressed along xb in Fb
v Ground velocity expressed along yb in Fb
(North) (East) w Ground velocity expressed along zb in Fb
xI yI ϕ Roll angle defined with respect to FI
θ Pitch angle defined with respect to F1
ψ Heading (yaw) angle defined with respect to F2
p Body angular (roll) rate expressed along xb in Fb
zI q Body angular (pitch) rate expressed along yb in Fb
(Down) r Body angular (yaw) rate expressed along zb in Fb
 2. DYNAMICS OF A GENERIC DRONE
Translational kinematics
v I  RbI vb ,
v I  [ p n p e p n ] , vb  [u v w] , R   R
T T I
b I 
b T

Rotational kinematics
Θ  LIb ωb ,
(North) (East)
xI yI Θ  [   ]T , ωb  [ p q r ]T ,
1 s t c t 
 
Lb   0
I
c  s 
zI  0 s c c c 

(Down)
 2. DYNAMICS OF A GENERIC DRONE
Translational kinetics
1
vb  vb  ωb  Fb
m
u   qw  rv   f xb 
    1 
 v    ru  pw   f yb 
m 
(North) (East)
 w   pv  qu   f zb 
xI yI
 The applying forces can be summarized as follows:
M
Fb   T j  D  R (Θ )  0 0  g 
b T
I
j 1
zI
(Down)
 2. DYNAMICS OF A GENERIC DRONE
Rotational kinematics
 The rotational dynamics is defined by Euler’s
equations of motion of a rigid body.
Jω bb I  ωbb I  Jωbb I  τ b
 In the presence of discrete rotors attached to the
drone, it is important to include the additional
xI yI moment of momentum stored in the discrete rotors.

 M  b M   M  M 
 J   J rj  ω b I   J rj Ω rj  ωb I   J   J rj  ωb I   J rj Ωrj   τ b
b b
zI
 j 1  j 1  j 1  j 1 
 2. DYNAMICS OF A GENERIC DRONE
Quaternions
 The attitude of a rigid body can be represented by
quaternions, which consist of four elements: three
that extend the commonly known imaginary number
and one that defines the magnitude of rotation

q  q0  qx i  q y j  qz k
(North) (East) where i 2  j 2  k 2  ijk  1
xI yI
 For a rotation of θr about unit vector e is defined by
the quaternions as follows:
T

zI
q  cos( r 2) e sin( r 2) 
T

(Down)