Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

A Variable Pitch Quadrotor with Quaternion Based Attitude Controller

Abstract Details

2017, MS, University of Cincinnati, Engineering and Applied Science: Mechanical Engineering.
Variable Pitch Quadcopter (VPQ) platforms offer unique capabilities over traditional quadcopters by producing thrust through change in pitch of blade instead of changing the speed of the rotor. The actuation is controlled through a helicopter swash plate and servo. This actuation allows VPQ to achieve near instantaneous change in thrust as well as inverted thrust. This versatility makes VPQ able to achieve aggressive inverted flight trajectories and aggressive transition maneuvers such as the “tic-toc” maneuver where the VPQ transitions back and forth between normal and inverted flight which are unachievable by tradition quadrotors. There are no existing commercial autopilots for the VPQ. This thesis focuses on construction of the VPQ quadcopter, building an autopilot system, and observe the requirement for an attitude control system that is singularity free for continuous rotations caused by inverted flight. A simplified motor model based on Blade Element Theory and Momentum Theory is used to describe the thrust and torque generated by the change in pitch of the blades. This simplified model has irrational yaw terms and therefore calculated through the derivative in a virtual control allocation. A quaternion attitude system is used in the description of orientation for its lack of rotation singularities. However, a new control law is needed to determine desired angular acceleration for use in the virtual control allocation. A cascaded controller is constructed that implements LQR position controller and geometric attitude tracking to produce aggressive attitude tracking. This controller shows robust tracking for following different trajectories in simulation.
Manish Kumar, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Rajnikant Sharma, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
David Thompson, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
66 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Guentert, P. H. (2017). A Variable Pitch Quadrotor with Quaternion Based Attitude Controller [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1504882010631186

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Guentert, Paul. A Variable Pitch Quadrotor with Quaternion Based Attitude Controller. 2017. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1504882010631186.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Guentert, Paul. "A Variable Pitch Quadrotor with Quaternion Based Attitude Controller." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1504882010631186

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)