Trajectory tracking control for a quadrotor helicopter based on backstepping using a decoupling quaternion parametrization

This paper presents a trajectory tracking control for the position and heading angle of a quadrotor helicopter. The control design is based on the backstepping approach and proves the asymptotic stability of the tracking problem. We use a beneficial quaternion-based attitude parametrization, which is composed of two rotations. The first describes the orientation of the thrust vector independently from the second, which describes the quadrotor´s heading. As a result, the translational dynamics and the yaw dynamics decouple from each other, which augments the control design. In addition, this decoupling allows an analytical derivation of all control signals within the backstepping procedure with reasonable expense. Experimental results show the practical use of the suggested control design.