Disturbance observer based control of small unmanned aerial rotorcraft

As a complex system, the control performance of small unmanned aerial rotorcraft is easily affected by the dynamic model errors, measurement errors, and environment disturbances. This paper proposes a disturbance observer based control method to improve performance. The disturbance observer based control is constructed by the feedback control and a series of integral filters. The system stability can be guaranteed by the feedback control method. Furthermore, the disturbances can be estimated and eliminated quickly by the integral filters. Therefore, the control performance can be improved effectively. The control performance of the disturbance observer based control has been validated by a series of flight tests. Compared with feedback control, the disturbance observer based control yields a better tracking performance in the presence of disturbances.