Modeling and Control of a Tilting Quadcopter

This article addresses modeling and tracking control for a tilting quadcopter in the presence of parametric uncertainties and external disturbances. We propose the novel concept of a tilting quadcopter, which suggests that the rotational and translational movements can be controlled independently. A complete dynamic model is developed, where parametric uncertainties and external disturbances are taken into consideration. Then, an adaptive fast finite-time control is proposed to provide robust, chattering-free, and fast convergence tracking performances. All the tracking errors can fast converge into arbitrary small neighborhoods around the origin in finite-time proved by a modified Lyapunov finite-time stability theory, and an adaptive scheme is synthesized to compensate for the effect of uncertainties. Finally, comparative simulations are carried out to illustrate the effectiveness and the robustness of the proposed controller.