Control of a quadrotor mini-helicopter via full state backstepiping technique

In this paper, we present a new control approach for a quadrotor mini-helicopter using the full state backstepping technique. The controller can set the helicopter track three Cartesian position and the yaw angle to their desired trajectories and stabilize the pitch and roll angles by varying the input signals of DC-motors. The quadrotor has been presented into three interconnected subsystems. The first one representing the under-actuated subsystem, gives the dynamic relation of the horizontal positions with the pitch and roll angles. The second fully-actuated subsystem represents the dynamic behavior of the vertical position and the yaw angle. The last subsystem gives the dynamic of the four rotors propeller system. The design controller methodology is based on the Lyapunov stability theory. Various simulations of a quadrotor show the good performance of the proposed control law. Finally, we present initial flight experiments where the mini-helicopter is restricted to vertical and yaw motions.