Predefined-Time Control of a Quadrotor UAV with a Robotic Arm Based on High-Order Fully Actuated System Approach

Given the increasing use of UAVs and related products in the information technology era, this paper investigates the predefined time tracking control problem for a class of quadrotor UAVs with robotic arms. Unlike state-space methods, high-order fully actuated system approach (HOFA) can deal with nonlinear problems flexibly and accurately without destroying the physical meaning of the system itself. Therefore, in this paper, the kinematics equations of a UAV with a robotic arm are described using the HOFA, and backstepping method is applied in the basic controller design. Then, adaptive control is applied to estimate disturbances to the system and to design appropriate adaptive control rates. To address the problem of slow state convergence of the UAV, a predefined time controller is designed so as to ensure that the state of the UAV can converge to the specified region within a predefined time. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed method is demonstrated by theoretical proofs and numerical simulation experiments.