Automatic takeoff of unmanned aerial vehicle based on Active Disturbance Rejection Control

The safe takeoff of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) under various wind conditions has been a challenging research for decades. We design an automatic takeoff control system based on the Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC). The automatic takeoff control system consists of a taxiing control subsystem, an attack angle control subsystem, a pitch angle control subsystem, and a smooth switch control subsystem whose function is to switch the forenamed three subsystems smoothly without the jumps of the elevator actuator. In contrast to previous methods, our approach can directly and real-timely estimate the UAV's internal and external disturbances and then compensate for them. Simulation results show that our automatic takeoff control system can lead the UAV to takeoff safely under wide range wind disturbances (e.g., downburst, wind turbulence) with the help of ADRC.