Wind disturbance rejection for unmanned aerial vehicles using acceleration feedback enhanced H-infinity method

One of the most critical issues for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) safety and precision flight is wind disturbance. To this end, this paper presents an acceleration feedback (AF) enhanced H-infinity method for UAV flight control against wind disturbance and its application on a hex-rotor platform. The dynamics of the UAV system are decoupled into attitude control and position control loops. A hierarchical H-infinity controller is then designed for the decoupled system. Finally, an AF-enhanced method is introduced into the decoupled system without altering the original control structure. The stability of the AF-enhanced H-infinity method for the UAV system is analyzed and verified using the H-infinity theory. Two types of wind disturbances-continuous and gusty winds-are considered and analyzed for guiding the AF-enhanced controller design. The results of an experimental comparison between the H-infinity controller and the AF-enhanced H-infinity controller against wind disturbances demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method for wind disturbance rejection