An Adaptive Variable Structure Control methodology for attitude and position control of a Vectored Thrust Aerial Vehicle

This paper presents an Adaptive Variable Structure Control (AVSC) methodology to autonomously control an UAV platform known as the Vectored Thrust Aerial Vehicle (VTAV). The proposed control algorithm eliminates chattering present in Sliding Mode Control (SMC), and improves the settling time of the VTAV system by driving the error states in a parabolic trajectory towards the origin of error space instead of constraining the error states to a predefined sliding manifold. The proposed methodology is also robust to external disturbances and parametric uncertainties. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the successful operation of the designed control algorithm on the VTAV.