Differential Dynamic Programming for Aerial Robots using an Aerodynamics Model

Differential Dynamic Programming for Aerial Robots using an Aerodynamics Model

Abuter Grebe, Nicolás Omar (TU Delft Aerospace Engineering; TU Delft Control & Simulation)

de Wagter, C. (mentor)

Delft University of Technology

Aerospace Engineering

2017-06-05

State of the art trajectory generation schemes for quadrotors assume a simple dynamic model. They neglect aerodynamic effects such as induced drag and blade flapping and assume that no wind is present. In order to overcome this limitation, this thesis investigates a trajectory optimization scheme based upon Differential Dynamic Programming (DDP). There are various software-implementations of the DDP scheme. For future deployment on robotic hardware the software is required to be computationally efficient, written in C++ and to be open-source. A library named GCOP, which was developed at the John Hopkins University, fulfills these requirements and is used. Before implementing the solver, a full model of the Crazyflie Nano Quadcopter is identified experimentally. The solver is validated, normalized and the performance is benchmarked. This method yields reliable minimum control-effort trajectories. A control scheme is proposed and studied in Monte-Carlo simulations. Itis robust and able to handle large modelling errors in mass and moment of inertia while ensuring minimal error on the final state.

Differential Dynamic Programming
quadcopter
quadrotor
Controller
Modeling

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:edbb8630-d1ad-4230-b4cd-f593e81622b2

Student theses

master thesis

© 2017 Nicolás Omar Abuter Grebe