Observer-Based Fuzzy Tracking Control for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle With Communication Constraints

In this article, we investigate the trajectory tracking problem of underactuated aerial vehicles with unknown mass in the presence of unknown nonvanishing disturbances using an event-triggered approach, while considering the constraint that the derivative of the reference trajectory is not available. In contrast to existing references where the derivative of the reference trajectory is needed, here we first introduce a high-gain observer to estimate the unknown derivative solely from the reference trajectory. A disturbance observer is designed to compensate for nonvanishing disturbances, such as wind. Fuzzy logic systems are used to approximate the model uncertainty arising from the unknown mass of the vehicle, and then we derive a thrust command law that follows from a desired stabilizing force. In addition, unlike traditional fixed and relative threshold strategies that rely solely on control signals, we develop a new time-varying event-triggered mechanism linked to the performance of the controlled system, taking into account factors, such as tracking errors, to develop angular velocity commands, enhancing tracking accuracy while efficiently conserving communication resources, especially in the absence of Zeno behavior. We present simulation results to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach and validate the theoretical findings.