Fuzzy PID Attitude Control for Cost-Effective Quadrotor Uavs

Abstract

This study addresses the challenge of controlling underactuated quadrotor UAVs, characterized by strongly coupled attitude and translational dynamics, as well as vulnerability to environmental disturbances. It proposes a novel cascaded fuzzy-PID control architecture for low-cost platforms to enhance robustness and trajectory tracking precision in complex operational environments. The core design employs a classical PID controller in the inner loop for rapid attitude stabilization, leveraging its simplicity and established effectiveness for this subtask. The outer loop integrates fuzzy logic to dynamically adjust the PID gains in real-time, significantly improving disturbance rejection against specific wind conditions. Simulations based on MATLAB/Simulink demonstrate that under specified wind disturbances, the cascade fuzzy PID controller reduces steady-state error compared to the traditional cascade PID controller. It shortens the stabilization time of pitch and roll angles by 45%, reduces the yaw angle stabilization time by 31%, and cuts recovery time to stability by 44% under identical disturbance conditions. The computational efficiency of the algorithm satisfies embedded deployment requirements on ARM Cortex-M3 platforms. This work effectively balances control precision, environmental adaptability, and engineering feasibility for resource-constrained platforms. The proposed cascaded fuzzy-PID controller offers a practical and robust technical solution for achieving reliable autonomous flight of low-cost quadrotors, enabling them to perform critical tasks in challenging real-world conditions.