Wachemo University

College of Engineering and technology

Department of Electro – Mechanical Engineering
Course code : EMEng4201
Course Name : Control system
Group Project
Title : Control system of drone (Quad copter)
Advisor: Lidya (MSc.)
Group members Id no
1. Mubarek Yesuf …………………… 1201535
2. Amanuel Kasahun ………………… 1201361
3. Bikila Mokonin …………………… 1201044
4. Gurmesa Regasa ………………….. 1200678

February , 2023
Hossana , Ethiopia

Control system of drone(Quad copter) 1

 Introduction
In recent year, research on quad rotors has become popular, but the first quad rotor was built in
1907 by Louis Charles Bréguet. Helicopter development was desired over quad rotor, but with
recent progress in technological development, more funds and time has been dedicated to the
research of quad rotors. Quad rotor became popular because helicopter uses tail rotors to
counterbalance the torque or rotating forces generated by the single main rotor. Because of the
counterbalancing tail rotor, it inefficient in term of control, power consumption and cost
production. Due to the work of Charles Richet and Dr George de Bothezat in 1956, propellers
where used to control the quadcopter roll, pitch and yaw angle. In addition to those
improvements, technological advancement in batteries weight, life and density has greatly helped
the research of quad rotors. Recent development in processors and low cost efficient sensors has
greatly impacted quad rotor development as well. Common application of quad rotors includes
surveillance, inspections, military operation and transportation. It is very applicable because of
its size; it is easier for it take off, to land and occupies less space. Because of its advantages, the
demand for accurate control is needed for stabilized flight when hovering. The demand for
accurate stabilized flight has led for the use of sensors and camera to achieve accurate result.
Although PID controller is commonly used for control of quad rotors, however due to
uncertainties and disturbance that occur during flight, PID controller is not a good mechanism
for control. 2 This thesis focuses on creating an accurate control mechanism to achieve stabilized
flight control using ℒ1 adaptive control because it mitigates the issues of uncertainties and
disturbance. A quad rotor is a nonlinear system device and control for nonlinear system is
complex because we desire a system that has fast adaptation and response in real time and robust
enough to mitigate the issue of disturbance and uncertainties. Adaptive control was developed as
a technique for automatic adjustment in real time. To achieve and maintain desired system
performance, the aerospace industries and institution started research on adaptive controller and
today it is used widely by different industries and for different purposed. Model reference
adaptive control (MRAC) is a type of adaptive control and ℒ1 adaptive control is a further use of
model reference adaptive control (MRAC). Apart from canceling of uncertainties and
disturbance, ℒ1 adaptive control theory has architecture in place for faster adaptation that is
decoupled from robustness. ℒ1 Adaptive control doesn’t losses robustness, because it is resolved
by conventional classical control and ℒ1 adaptive control system guarantees robustness in the
Control system of drone(Quad copter) 2
presence of fast adaption with high gain feedback. This thesis includes the derivation of quad
rotor model, and the model is then controlled by a PID controller and an ℒ1 adaptive controller
in the presence of uncertainty.

Figure 1.
A Simple quad rotor drone

The Control objectives of the quad copter (drone)

 There are some objectives of controlling drone ;

1.Makes Inspections More Efficient

When I talk about inspections, this actually can include many different types of industries. We
can talk about how the police are being aided in their work, making certain situations much safer
and easier to deal with than previously. It also includes services like plumbing, roofing,
engineering, mapping, safety, and disaster management.

2. Helps Greatly With Scientific Research

Scientists who are researching dangerous places like active volcanoes or areas that spew fumes
can finally observe seismic activity with better detail. All they have to do is attach the camera to
the drone and then fly around the area that they need to study.

3. Makes Delivery Easier

Distributing products such as your favourite pizza or a letter for your special someone will never
be the same once drones become widely used for delivery. Drones can easily hold a parcel,
depending on the payload attachment.

Control system of drone(Quad copter) 3

4. Helps Emergency Responders save Lives

As explained earlier, drones can make delivery easier. With this same ability, health care
services and emergency response units can help their patients more quickly and efficiently when
the situation demands it.

5. Military Applications

Long before drones became a way to share some cool videos on social media, the military
benefited greatly from drone technology. Drones can be used by the military for the following
purposes:

 Air strike
 Bomb detection
 Spying

6. Great For Recording Your Videos and Capturing Photos

As a traveler, I find this benefit to be the best advantage the average user can get from a drone.
When I travel, I always want to make sure that I have a lot of angles of the different places I
visit. When I purchased a drone, my experience with taking photos and videos became much
more exciting.

QUADCOPTER COORDINATE SYSTEM

A quad employs different control mechanism such as roll, pitch, and yaw which in most cases
are represented by angle of rotation around the center of the quad craft. These angles make up for
the control of the altitude of the quadcopter and to track the altitude of the quadcopter, a two-
coordinate system is required. There is the body frame system which is attached to the quad at its
center of gravity and the earth frame system which is fixed to the earth and it is sometimes refer
to as an inertial coordinate system. The angular different between the two coordinate helps
define the behavior of the quad altitude in space. The attitude system can be derived by rotating
the body frame around the z axis of the earth frame by the yaw angle 𝜑, which is tend followed
by rotating around the y-axis by the pitch angle 𝜙 and finally by rotating around the x-axis by
the roll angle 𝜃.

Control system of drone(Quad copter) 4

How quad rotor works and The Attitude control
A quad as we know it has four motors and it is important to know that the thrust of each motor
force a change around the pitch, roll, and yaw angle. To understand that, it is very important to
know that a quadcopter is under actuated which means that the six degree of freedom (𝜙, 𝜃, 𝜓,
𝑋, 𝑌, 𝑍) is only controlled by the four inputs. Two of the six DOF are couple and they are the
x-axis and y-axis on the translational size of the quadcopter. The translational part of the
quadcopter is dependent on the attitude of the craft with respect to the other four degrees of
freedom. More would be discussed on how to account and control the under actuated part of the
quad when designing a control method for the quad. It is also important to know that a
quadcopter has four motor where two of them spins in the clockwise direction while the order
two spins in the counter clockwise direction and if the thrust generated by the motors is equal,
the ability for the quadcopter to roll, hover pitch, 5 and yaw is possible.

Figure 2:

Attitude control system of a quadrotor

The diagram in figure 2 shows how the force generated by each motor affects a change the
direction of the quadcopter along the angles on the coordinate system.

[ ]
cosθcos∅ cosθsin −sinθ
R = −cos ∅ sin+sin ∅ sinθcos cos ∅ cos +sin ∅ sinθsin sin ∅ sinθ
sin ∅ sin ⁡+cos ∅ sinθcos −sin∅ cos+ cos ∅ sinθsin cos ∅ cosθ

The matrix R describes the attitude of the UAV as it changes with time.
Control system of drone(Quad copter) 5
Figure 3:

Movement around Angles on the Coordinates System because of Force

DYNAMIC MODEL
The dynamic model of a quad copter is a subsystem that is divided into two subsystems known
as the rotational subsystem that represent (roll angle, pitch angle and yaw angle) and
translational subsystem that represent (Z position, X position, Y position). The rotational side of
the Quad copter is completely actuated while the translational side of the subsystem is under
actuated
MOMENT ACTION ON THE QUADROTOR
An effect of rotation is the force generated called aerodynamic force and moment generated
called aerodynamic moment. The aerodynamic moment is the combination of aerodynamic force
multiplied by its distance. It is dependent on the geometry of the propeller and by identifying the
moment and force generated by the propeller, we can understand the moment acting on the
quadcopter. From figure 3.1, when F2 is multiplied by the moment arm, a negative moment is
generated about the y-axis. Using the same concept, F4 generates a positive moment and the total
moment about the x-axis can be expresses as

𝑀𝑋 = (𝐹4 − 𝐹2)𝑙
Same concept is applied for My Where :
𝑀𝑦 = (𝐹1 − 𝐹3)𝑙

Control system of drone(Quad copter) 6

For the moment about the Z axis, the thrust of the rotor does not cause a moment, but rather the
rotor rotation in relation with the rotor speed causes a moment and is represented as:
𝑀𝑧 = (𝐹1 + 𝐹3 − 𝐹2 − 𝐹4)𝑙c
Where c gives the relationship between the rotor speed and its effect on the quad rotor rotation
about the body frame and the combination of each body frame axis gives us a matrix as shown
below.

[ ]
( F 4−F 2 ) l
Mb = ( F 1−F 3 ) l
( F 1+ F 3−F 2−F 4 ) lc

Inertial Matrix
The inertial matrix for a quadcopter is a diagonal matrix as shown below. The structure of the
matrix is because quad copters are built symmetrically with respect to the coordinate systems
that were explained

[
𝐽 = 0 Jy 0
]
Jx 0 0

0 0 Jz

Which are defined below and these parameters would be used for simulation:

𝐽𝑥 = 𝐽𝑦 = 0.03𝑘𝑔𝑚2, 𝐽𝑧 = 0.05𝑘𝑔𝑚2

[ ]
0.03 0 0
J= 0 0.03 0
0 0 0.05

From the matrix above 𝐽𝑥, 𝐽𝑦 and 𝐽𝑧 are the area moments of inertia about the principle
axes on the body frame.

Control system of drone(Quad copter) 7

Differential equation

T res= 𝐽ω̇ b +ω b × (𝐽ω b )

[]
p
ω
where: b = q
r

ω b = 𝑅v Ƞ̇

Ƞ̇ = R v
[
𝐽 = 0 Jy 0
]
Jx 0 0
−1
ωb
0 0 Jz

[]
φ
Ƞ= θ
ψ

[ ]
1 0 −sin (θ )
R v = 0 cos ⁡(φ) cos ( θ ) sin ⁡(φ)
0 −sin ⁡( φ) cos ( θ ) cos ⁡(φ)

T res= 𝐽ω̇ b +ω b × (𝐽ω b )

J (T res - ω b × J ωb ) = ω̇ b
−1

We use T res as an input and the Euler angles (φ , θ , ψ ¿as an output.

The overall block diagram of a quad copter (drone) is as given below which is
assembled using SIMULINK program on MATLAB.

Where:
Ƞ=n r = roll (φ ¿
J = inertia matrix
T final = (T res - ω b × J ωb ) p = pitch (θ ¿
dot = derivative
inv = invers y = yaw (ψ ¿

Control system of drone(Quad copter) 8

Figure 4:

The Overall block diagram of quad copter (drone) control on SIMULINK only controlling
the Pitch (θ ¿.

Control system of drone(Quad copter) 9

Our system is nonlinear and not stable from the Scope result as shown below;

Figure 5: Scope result

 So we can linearize it using linear analysis window on MATLAB.

And after linearize our system, we can find out our step response and our linear system
Transfer function also.

Figure 6: Step response

Control system of drone(Quad copter) 10

Our step response has infinity steady state. Because, our system is not stable.so before our
system is stable we cannot talk and make decision about our Transient and steady state response.

After linearize our system we can find our Transfer function on the linear analysis workspace,
on MATLAB, which is putted as linsys1.

In order to make any analysis using our linear system transfer function on MATLAB, we move
our transfer function (linsys1) to MATLAB workspace. And we find it as state space form (in
terms of A, B, C&D).so we can change the state space form in to Transfer function as,

tf(linsys1) on the MATLAB command window. Then we get our transfer function as;

C( s) 33.33
= 2
R( s) s

After linearization the above transfer function becomes marginally stable, which have two poles
at the origin with constant amplitude that oscillates without damping.

Because of our system is not stable, we interactively design a controller as;

ControlSystemDesigner(linsys1), and we get our transfer function’s Bode plot, Root locus and
Step response.

Figure 7: controlSystemDesigner

From our transfer function and 2nd order format our damping ratio is zero, this also be the reason
for marginal stability of our system.

Control system of drone(Quad copter) 11

By changing our design requirement, (e.g.: our damping ratio = 0.5) we can find our allowable
region of our system as below;

Figure 8: Root locus at damping ratio = 0.5

In order to see some effect on our response we can change the edit compensator. e.g.; when we
add a real zero on our system at -1 location. Which means our controller C = s+1, the root locus
will be shifted and the step response also changes as shown below;

Figure 9: Root locus and step response after adding a real zero

Then from the step response, we can find out steady state = 1.and the transient responses as;
ts = 0.485 s, tr = 0.0608 s …., so using a real zero we gate acceptable result.
As real zero we can add other parameters like real pole, integrator, derivative, lead, lag…. on
different location, to see the effect on our step response.

Control system of drone(Quad copter) 12

 33.33
By taking edited value of feedback ‘C’ as C = s+1 and our transfer function 2 on MATLAB
s
on the following format;

num = [33.33];
den = [1 0 0]
sys = tf(num,den);
s = tf('s');
C = s+1;
loop_tf = C*sys;
closed = feedback(loop_tf,1);
step(closed)

 We can get our closed loop after addition of controller as shown below, which is the
same as explained on the above.

Figure 10: Closed loop after addition of controller.

Control system of drone(Quad copter) 13