Module 5:

Stability & Control

Drone Payload capacity
Drone Payload Capacity is given by the formula

P=T*M*H-W
P: Payload capacity
T: Thrust
M: [Link] Motors
H: Hover Throttle Percentage
W: Weight of the drone
 Introduction
• How well an airplane flies?
• How easily it can be controlled?
• By stability we mean the tendency of the airplane to return to its equilibrium
position after it has been disturbed.
• The disturbance may be generated by the pilot's actions or atmospheric
phenomena.
• The atmospheric disturbances can be wind gusts, wind gradients, or turbulent air.
• An airplane must have sufficient stability that the pilot does not become fatigued
by constantly having to control the airplane owing to external disturbances.
• Although airplanes with little or no inherent aerodynamic stability can be flown,
they are unsafe to fly unless they are provided artificial stability by an
electromechanical device called a stability augmentation system.
 Static stability
• Stability is a property of an equilibrium state.
• Equilibrium: If an airplane is to remain in steady uniform flight, the resultant
force as well as the resultant moment about the center of gravity must both
be equal to 0. An airplane satisfying this requirement is said to be in a state
of equilibrium or flying at a trim condition.
• If the moments do not sum to 0, the airplane will be subjected to
translational and rotational accelerations.
• The airplane stability is generally divided into static and dynamic stability.
• Static stability is the initial tendency of the vehicle to return to its
equilibrium state after a disturbance.
Types of Static stability
If the ball were to be displaced from the bottom of the curved
surface, by the gravitational attraction, the ball would roll back to
the bottom (i.e., the force and moment would tend to restore the
ball to its equilibrium point). Such a situation would be referred to
as a stable equilibrium point.

If we were able to balance a ball on the curved surface then any

displacement from the equilibrium point would cause the ball to roll
off the surface. In this case, the equilibrium point would be classified
as unstable

If the wall were to be displaced from its initial equilibrium point to

another position, the ball would remain at the new position. This
would be classified as a neutrally stable equilibrium point and
represents the limiting (or boundary) between static stability and
static instability.
Static Stability Equations:
 Static stability refers to the aircraft's tendency to return to its
original position after a disturbance.
 For a quadcopter, static stability can be analyzed using the
equilibrium equations that relate the forces and moments
acting on the vehicle in stationary flight.
 These equations typically involve the forces generated by the
propellers (thrust) and the moments generated by the propeller's
torque, as well as the vehicle's geometry and mass distribution.
 The equilibrium condition is typically expressed as the sum of
forces and moments equaling zero in each direction.
Static Stability Equations:
Example equations:

 ΣF_x = 0 (Sum of forces in the x-direction)

 ΣF_y = 0 (Sum of forces in the y-direction)

 ΣF_z = 0 (Sum of forces in the z-direction)

 ΣM_x = 0 (Sum of moments about the x-axis)

 ΣM_y = 0 (Sum of moments about the y-axis)

 ΣM_z = 0 (Sum of moments about the z-axis)

Exercise 1: Given the following forces and moments acting on a
quadcopter in stationary flight:
F_x = 0 N (no horizontal movement)

F_y = 0 N (no lateral movement)

F_z = mg N (weight supported by thrust)

M_x = 0 Nm (no roll)

M_y = 0 Nm (no pitch)

M_z = 0 Nm (no yaw)

Find the thrust required from each motor to maintain equilibrium

if the total mass of the quadcopter is 2 kg.
Solution 1: Since the sum of forces and moments equals zero in each
direction, we can use these equations to find the required thrust
from each motor.
F_z = mg
Therefore, each motor must provide a thrust of F_thrust = mg/4
Given mass (m) = 2 kg
acceleration due to gravity (g) = 9.81 m/s²:

F_thrust = (2 kg * 9.81 m/s²) / 4

F_thrust ≈ 4.905 N

So, each motor should produce approximately 4.905 N of thrust to

maintain equilibrium.
Dynamic stability
• In dynamic stability we are concerned with the time history of the motion
of the vehicle after it is disturbed from its equilibrium point.
• The vehicle can be statically stable but dynamically unstable. Static
stability, therefore, does not guarantee dynamic stability. However, for
the vehicle to be dynamically stable it must be statically stable.
Dynamic stability
• The reduction of the disturbance with time indicates that there is resistance to the
motion and therefore, energy is being dissipated.
• The dissipation of energy is called positive damping.
• If energy is being added to the system, then negative damping.
• Positive damping for an airplane is provided by forces and moments that arise
owing to the airplane's motion. In positive damping, these forces and moments will
oppose the motion of the airplane and cause the disturbance to damp out with
time.
• An airplane that has negative aerodynamic damping will be dynamically unstable.
To fly such an airplane, artificial damping must be designed into the vehicle. The
artificial damping is provided by a stability augmentation system (SAS). A stability
augmentation system is an electromechanical device that senses the undesirable
motion and moves the appropriate controls to damp out the motion. This usually is
accomplished with small control movements and, therefore, the pilot's control
actions are not influenced by the system
Dynamic stability
 Dynamic stability refers to the aircraft's ability to return to equilibrium
after a disturbance over time.
 Dynamic stability analysis involves linearizing the equations of motion
around an equilibrium point and studying the system's response to small
disturbances.

 For quadcopters, dynamic stability equations involve the linearized

equations of motion, typically derived from Newton-Euler equations, with
small perturbations.
 These equations are often represented in state-space form and can be
analyzed using techniques from control theory such as eigenvalue analysis.
 Dynamic stability
x˙=Ax+Bu (State-space equation for a linearized system)

y=Cx+Du (Output equation)

• A, B, C, and D matrices are derived from the linearized equations

of motion
• x represents state variables
(e.g., position, velocity, attitude angles, angular rates)
• u represents control inputs
(e.g., motor commands, control surface deflections)
• y represents system outputs
(e.g., sensor measurements)
Dynamic Stability
Exercise 2: Consider a quadcopter with the following state-
space representation:
x represents the state vector containing position
and velocity in the x and z directions.

u represents the control input vector containing

motor commands for roll and yaw.

y represents the output vector containing position

measurements in the x and z directions.

Determine the stability of the system by analyzing the

eigenvalues of the A matrix.
Solution 2: The stability of the system can be determined by analyzing the eigenvalues of the A matrix.

• Compute the eigenvalues of the

A matrix
• The eigenvalues are real and
negative, indicating that the
the system is stable but critically
damped.
Applicable for dynamically Stable System
LONGITUDINAL CONTROL

•Longitudinal control of a UAV quadcopter involves controlling its

motion along the longitudinal axis, which typically corresponds to the
forward and backward motion of the vehicle. This control is essential
for tasks like maintaining altitude, pitch stabilization, and controlling
forward or backward acceleration.
•One common approach to longitudinal control is to use a proportional-
integral-derivative (PID) controller. The PID controller computes a
control signal based on the error between the desired longitudinal
motion and the actual longitudinal motion measured by sensors. The
control signal is then used to adjust the vehicle's motor commands to
achieve the desired motion.
The equation for a PID controller used in longitudinal control can be written as:
The error signal e(t) is typically computed as the difference between a
desired longitudinal motion setpoint (such as desired altitude or desired
pitch angle) and the actual longitudinal motion measured by sensors (such
as altitude sensors or an inertial measurement unit).

The PID gains Kp, Ki, and Kd are tuned empirically to achieve desired
performance characteristics, such as responsiveness, stability, and
disturbance rejection.

In summary, the equation for longitudinal control of a UAV quadcopter

using a PID controller involves computing a control signal based on the
error between desired and actual longitudinal motion, with proportional,
integral, and derivative terms to adjust the motor commands and achieve
the desired motion.
Exercise3
Consider a UAV quadcopter tasked with maintaining a constant altitude of 10
meters above the ground. The quadcopter is equipped with altitude sensors that
provide altitude measurements with a sampling rate of 10 Hz. The quadcopter's PID
controller for longitudinal control has been designed with the following parameters:

Proportional gain (Kp): 2

Integral gain (Ki): 0.1

Derivative gain (Kd): 1

At time t=0, the quadcopter's initial altitude is 9 meters. Determine the control
signal required by the PID controller at t=1 second to maintain the quadcopter's
altitude at the desired setpoint.
 Stick forces
•The stick forces of a UAV quadcopter, also known as the control inputs, typically correspond
to the pilot's input commands given through the control sticks of the transmitter. These
stick forces are translated into motor commands to control the quadcopter's motion.
•For a quadcopter, there are generally four control inputs corresponding to the four control
axes: roll, pitch, yaw, and throttle (collective thrust). Each control input is usually
represented as a percentage of maximum output, with 0% representing no input and 100%
representing full input.
•Here's the mathematical equation representing the stick forces (control inputs) for a UAV
quadcopter:

•Roll Input: Stick Forceroll=Roll Stick Position

•Pitch Input: Stick Forcepitch=Pitch Stick Position
•Yaw Input: Stick Forceyaw=Yaw Stick Position
•Throttle Input: Stick Forcethrottle=Throttle Stick Position
Stick forces
Where:
 Roll Stick PositionRoll Stick Position represents the position of the
roll control stick, typically ranging from -100% to +100%.
 Pitch Stick PositionPitch Stick Position represents the position of
the pitch control stick, typically ranging from -100% to +100%.
 Yaw Stick PositionYaw Stick Position represents the position of
the yaw control stick, typically ranging from -100% to +100%.
 Throttle Stick PositionThrottle Stick Position represents the
position of the throttle control stick, typically ranging from 0% to
+100%.
Stick forces- Exercise 4
Suppose you are piloting a quadcopter using a standard radio transmitter with
control sticks. At a certain moment during flight, you push the roll control stick to
its maximum position, pitch control stick to half of its maximum position, yaw
control stick to its minimum position, and throttle control stick to 75% of its
maximum position. Assume that the maximum positions for each control stick are:

Roll control stick: ±100%

Pitch control stick: ±100%
Yaw control stick: ±100%
Throttle control stick: 0% to 100%

Calculate the stick forces (control inputs) for each control axis based on the
given positions of the control sticks.
Directional stability and control
•The equation for directional stability and control of a UAV quadcopter can be expanded to
consider the aerodynamic forces and moments, as well as the motor thrusts and torques. A
more comprehensive equation may look like this:

Yaw Torque=∑Motor Torques+Aerodynamic Torques+External Torques Where:

∑Motor Torques: represents the total torque generated by the motors' thrust imbalance.
This is the primary contributor to yaw motion and is often proportional to the difference in
rotational speeds between opposing pairs of motors.
Aerodynamic Torques: Aerodynamic Torques represent any additional yaw torque generated
by aerodynamic effects, such as airflow over the frame or propellers, which can influence
the quadcopter's yaw behavior.
External Torques: External Torques represent any external disturbances or inputs that
contribute to yaw motion, such as wind gusts or control inputs from the pilot.
Directional stability and control
•The specific contributions from each of these terms may vary depending on factors
such as the quadcopter's design, aerodynamic characteristics, and environmental
conditions.
•Additionally, the control inputs or commands for yaw control can be influenced by
factors such as sensor feedback, flight controller algorithms, and control strategies.
These factors may affect how the control inputs are translated into motor
commands to achieve the desired yaw motion.

•In summary, while the basic principle of generating yaw torque through motor
thrust imbalance remains, the complete equation for directional stability and
control of a UAV quadcopter involves considering additional factors such as
aerodynamic effects and external disturbances.
Directional stability and control- Exercise 5
Suppose you are designing a UAV quadcopter and need to analyze its yaw stability and
control.
The quadcopter has the following specifications:

Mass: 2 kg
Motor thrust (maximum): 20 N per motor
Arm length: 0.2 meters
Aerodynamic torque coefficient: 0.1 Nm/(rad/s)

At a certain moment during flight, the quadcopter experiences a yaw torque of 1 Nm

due to a wind gust.
Calculate the required motor thrust imbalance to counteract the wind gust and
maintain stable yaw motion.
∑Motor Torques=Motor Thrust Imbalance*mass*Arm Length(L)

Aerodynamic Torques= Caero * Yaw Angular Velocity

Roll stability and control
• Roll stability and control of a UAV quadcopter involve controlling its
orientation and motion along the roll axis. One common method for
achieving roll control is by adjusting the thrust output of motors on
opposing sides of the quadcopter.
• The equation for roll stability and control can be expressed as follows:
Roll Torque=kr×(Thrust Difference)
Where:
• kr is a constant representing the proportionality between the roll torque
and the thrust difference.
• "Thrust Difference" refers to the difference in thrust output between
motors on one side of the quadcopter and those on the opposite side.
Roll stability and control
• In practice, the roll torque is generated by varying the rotational speeds of motors across
the quadcopter's diagonal axis. By increasing the thrust of motors on one diagonal while
decreasing the thrust of motors on the opposite diagonal, a torque imbalance is created,
inducing roll motion.
• The control inputs for roll control typically come from the pilot's input commands
through the control sticks or are generated by the flight controller based on autonomous
navigation algorithms. These control inputs are translated into adjustments in motor
thrust to achieve the desired roll motion.
• It's essential to note that the specific implementation and control strategies for roll
stability and control may vary based on factors such as the quadcopter's design, flight
controller configuration, and flight conditions. Therefore, the equation provided serves as
a general representation of the relationship between roll torque and control inputs for a
UAV quadcopter.
Roll stability and control-
Exercise 6
• Suppose you are piloting a UAV quadcopter, and you want to
execute a roll maneuver to the right. The quadcopter has a mass of
1.5 kg, and the distance between motors on the diagonal axis is 0.3
meters. During the roll maneuver, you increase the thrust output of
motors on the left diagonal by 0.5 N each while decreasing the
thrust output of motors on the right diagonal by 0.5 N each.

• Calculate the resulting roll torque generated by this thrust

difference.