A control algorithm that is robust with respect to wind disturbances for a quadrotor UAV attitude dynamics is presented. The proposed approach consists of a high-gain observer based on a discontinuous technique. Such an algorithm is embedded on board the quadrotor. The high-gain observer estimates external disturbances such as wind and parameter uncertainties, and a control algorithm is designed to compensate these undesired effects. The observer design is based on Lyapunov stability theory; simulation results and experiments validate the nonlinear observer performance and robustness of the approach under windy conditions. Also, a photogrammetry survey was carried out to develop Digital Elevation Models in order to experimentally demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. The accuracy of such models was compared and the performance improvement is demonstrated.

A stability analysis of discrete-time nonlinear systems subjected to a class of nonvanishing perturbations is presented. It is shown that, if the equilibrium point of the unperturbed system is uniformly asymptotically or exponentially stable, then the state trajectories are ultimately bounded if some conditions on the perturbations are satisfied. A region with guaranteed stability for the perturbed system is also given. The results obtained are applied to the model-matching problem associated with a perturbed discrete-time nonlinear system.

A Fractional Order Sliding Mode Control (FOSMC) is proposed in this paper for an integer second order nonlinear system with an unknown additive perturbation term. A sufficient condition is given to assure the attractiveness to a given sliding surface where trajectory tracking is assured, despite the presence of the perturbation term. The control scheme is applied to the model of a quadrotor vehicle in order to have trajectory tracking in the space. Simulation results are presented to evaluate the performance of the control scheme.