Fractional Order Controller for Quadcopter Subjected to Ground Effect

Abstract

Although the concept of fractional calculus was known for centuries, it was not considered in engineering due to the lack of implementation tools and acceptable performance of integer order models and control. However, recently, engineers and researchers started to investigate the potentially high performance of fractional calculus in various fields among which are acoustics, conservation of mass, diffusion equation and specifically in this thesis control theory. The intention of this thesis is to analyze the relative performance of fractional versus integer order PID controller for a quadcopter. Initially, the dynamics of the quadcopter is presented with additional consideration of the ground effect and torque saturation. Then, are introduced the concept of fractional calculus and the mathematical tools to be used for modeling fractional order controller. Finally, the performance of the fractional order controller is evaluated by comparing it to an integer order controller.