Hybrid stability augmentation control of multi-rotor UAV in confined space based on adaptive backstepping control

Abstract: This paper applies the UAV to the inspection of water diversion pipelines in hydropower stations. The diversion pipeline is an enclosed space, so the airflow disturbance caused by the rotation of the UAV blades and the strong air convection from the chimney effect have a great impact on the flight control of the UAV. Although the traditional linear control PID flight control algorithm has been widely used and can meet the requirements of general flight tasks, it cannot guarantee the stability of the system over a wide range. The inspection of a diversion line in an enclosed space requires high system stability and robustness of the UAV controller. In this paper, a hybrid stabilised adaptive backstepping control method is proposed. Firstly, a multi-rotor UAV model is analysed and transformed into a strict feedback form with external disturbances; then adaptive techniques are used to estimate the airflow disturbances caused by the blades, and the attitude and position tracking controllers are designed by combining backstepping control and PID control respectively; finally, the asymptotic stability of the system is ensured by constructing a Lyapunov function. The experimental data show that the flight controller designed in this paper has good robustness and tracking performance, and can better resist the disturbance caused by airflow disturbance in confined space.