Adaptive output tracking control design of a gun launched micro aerial vehicle based on approximate feedback linearization

This paper considers the problem of controlling the position and the orientation of a Gun Launched Micro Aerial Vehicle - GLMAV - despite unknown aerodynamic efforts. The proposed approach overcomes the problem of gyroscopic coupling by taking advantage from the structure of the thrust mechanism, which is made of two counter rotating propellers. An adaptive linearizing controller is designed, allowing the trajectory tracking and the stabilization of the vehicle´s position and orientation while the unknown aerodynamic efforts are estimated by means of an identifier. The overall process is shown to be stable for constant, or slowly time varying, aerodynamic efforts. However numerical simulations demonstrate the satisfying controller´s performance even with non constant aerodynamic efforts.