Aerial Robotics and Vehicles: Control and Mechanical Design

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Robotics and Automation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 October 2024 | Viewed by 1656

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Instituto Politécnico Nacional-CITEDI, Tijuana 22435, BC, Mexico
Interests: nonlinear systems; robotics; underactuated systems; neural networks; complex systems; mechatronics; aerial autonomous systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer, Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88011, USA
Interests: control systems; autonomous systems; computer vision; aerial autonomous systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
DEPI, TecNM/Instituto Tecnológico de la Laguna, Torreón 27000, Mexico
Interests: aerial autonomous systems; nonlinear control design; wheeled mobile robot control

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Aerial robotics has been an active area of research for several decades. The development of sophisticated auto-pilot systems for manned and unmanned vehicles, intelligent autonomous navigation systems, novel materials and microelectromechanical systems for biomimetic aerial robots and aerial manipulators have seen a large range of applications.

The advantages of modern embedded computing, accurate GPS positioning, low-cost sensors, and low-cost lightweight aerial vehicles have increased the number of applications in aerial robotics.

Aerial robotic vehicles have complex and sometimes partially known dynamic models. Moreover, the design and control of these systems may be challenging if the available sensors are inefficient.

Sophisticated control and estimation techniques commonly arise from prototype-specific requirements and constraints. For example, efficient control and estimation techniques should deal with the highly nonlinear dynamic model of vehicles. They should also ensure stability under the conditions of a dynamically changing environment. The literature shows that robust and nonlinear control and estimation algorithms can significantly improve the performance of aerial robotic systems.

Aerial robotics has diverse areas of development; for example, aerial manipulation is one of the main areas of opportunity in this field. It aims to combine the versatility and agility of some aerial platforms with the manipulation capabilities of a robotic manipulator arm. In addition, biological inspiration has also enriched the field of aerial robotics. Flight principles encountered in birds and insects have motivated the design and development of estimation and control strategies, as well as of sensing, actuation, and even motor driving mechanisms.

The main goal of this Special Issue is to collect recent results on aerial robotics, especially those that are concerned with practical and theoretical problems, efficient implementations in applications, as well as novel designs whose advantages can be proven by simulations.

The topics of this Special Issue cover a wide range of important applications in aerial robotics, such as:

  • Modeling;
  • Control design;
  • Attitude estimation;
  • Visual feedback;
  • Real-time embedded system;
  • Practical challenges in implementation;
  • Aerial manipulation;
  • Mechanical design;
  • Bio-inspired aerial robot;
  • Mathematical modeling;
  • Simulation.

Prof. Dr. Javier Moreno-Valenzuela
Dr. Luis Rodolfo Garcia Carrillo
Prof. Dr. Alejandro Enrique Dzul López
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • modeling
  • control design
  • attitude estimation
  • visual feedback
  • real-time embedded system
  • practical challenges in implementation
  • aerial manipulation
  • mechanical design
  • bio-inspired aerial robot
  • mathematical modeling
  • simulation

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 4882 KiB  
Article
MRAS Using Lyapunov Theory with Sliding Modes for a Fixed-Wing MAV
by T. Espinoza-Fraire, Armando Saenz, Isaac Gandarilla and Wojciech Giernacki
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(5), 2198; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app14052198 - 06 Mar 2024
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Abstract
This work applies an adaptive PD controller based on MRAS (Model Reference Adaptive System) using Lyapunov theory with sliding mode theory to a Fixed-wing MAV (Mini Aerial Vehicle). The objective is to design different adjustment mechanisms to obtain a robust adaptive control law [...] Read more.
This work applies an adaptive PD controller based on MRAS (Model Reference Adaptive System) using Lyapunov theory with sliding mode theory to a Fixed-wing MAV (Mini Aerial Vehicle). The objective is to design different adjustment mechanisms to obtain a robust adaptive control law in the presence of unknown perturbation due to wind gusts. Four adjustment mechanisms applied to an adaptive PD controller are compared. The adjustment mechanisms are Lyapunov theory, Lyapunov theory with first-order sliding mode, Lyapunov theory with second-order sliding mode, and Lyapunov theory with high-order sliding mode. Finally, after several simulations, a significant reduction and almost elimination of the unknown perturbations are presented with the addition of the sliding mode theory in the design of the adjustment mechanism for the adaptive PD controller. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aerial Robotics and Vehicles: Control and Mechanical Design)
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16 pages, 11100 KiB  
Article
Trajectory Tracking Outer Loop Regressor-Based Adaptive Controller for a Quadrotor
by Ivan Lopez-Sanchez, Jerónimo Moyrón, Luis Rodolfo García Carrillo, Alejandro Dzul and Javier Moreno-Valenzuela
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(22), 12177; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app132212177 - 09 Nov 2023
Viewed by 630
Abstract
A high-level control strategy for a quad rotorcraft Unmanned Aircraft System to perform trajectory tracking tasks is presented, which is based on a regressor-based adaptive approach. The high-level control is designed to interact with a low-level (internal) control loop that cannot be modified [...] Read more.
A high-level control strategy for a quad rotorcraft Unmanned Aircraft System to perform trajectory tracking tasks is presented, which is based on a regressor-based adaptive approach. The high-level control is designed to interact with a low-level (internal) control loop that cannot be modified to suit the needs of academic researchers. Hence, the proposed control framework computes the appropriate high-level inputs for the inner controller, enabling the trajectory tracking task. The controller includes an integral action to overcome steady-state errors that may occur due to parameter estimation errors or constant disturbances. The stability of the equilibrium point is analyzed using Lyapunov theory, which shows that the tracking errors converge to zero and the parameter estimation errors remain bounded. The proposed control framework was tested on a real-time quad rotorcraft platform, and its performance was compared with four different control strategies. The results indicate that the proposed controller exhibits high accuracy and has better performance with respect to the other controllers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aerial Robotics and Vehicles: Control and Mechanical Design)
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