Asymmetric UAV Performing Pointing Maneuver Under Lateral CG Offset: An Adaptive Backstepping Control Approach

Abstract

This work addresses the complex issue of autonomously executing the maneuvers with fixed-wing Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), which can experience significant lateral center of gravity (c.g.) variations due to uneven cargo loading or release. The study establishes that the asymmetric flight dynamics of the UAV, caused by laterally shifted c.g., can be effectively represented in a block strict feedback form. Subsequently, an adaptive backstepping controller is proposed to enable the closed-loop system to adapt to c.g. variations. The controller’s stability is proven using Lyapunov’s method. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme, simulations are conducted involving pointing maneuvers with the Aerosonde UAV. The results demonstrate that the proposed scheme exhibits high resilience to lateral c.g. variations and achieves superior tracking performance.