Super twisting control algorithm for the four rotors helicopter attitude tracking problem

This paper deals with the design and implementation of the super twisting control algorithm for the attitude tracking of a four rotors helicopter known as quadrotor. The choice of this algorithm, which is based on the second order sliding mode technique, was justified by the fact that it ensures robustness with respect to modeling errors and external disturbances while reducing the chattering phenomenon caused by all the first order sliding mode based controllers. The stability and finite time convergence characteristics of this algorithm have been recently proved by means of Lyapunov functions, so the stability analysis of the proposed controller has been conducted in the same way. In order to show the effectiveness of the controller, experimental tests were carried out on a quadrotor. The obtained results show the good performances of the proposed controller in terms of stabilization, tracking and robustness.