A New Position Control Strategy for VTOL UAVs using IMU and GPS measurements

Abstract

We propose a new position control strategy for VTOL-UAVs using IMU and GPS measurements. Since there is no sensor that measures the attitude, our approach does not rely on the knowledge (or reconstruction) of the system orientation as usually done in the existing literature. Instead, IMU and GPS measurements are directly incorporated in the control law. An important feature of the proposed strategy, is that the accelerometer is used to measure the apparent acceleration of the vehicle, as opposed to only measuring the gravity vector, which would otherwise lead to unexpected performance when the vehicle is accelerating (i.e. not in a hover configuration). Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the performance of the proposed position control strategy in the presence of noise and disturbances.