Trajectory tracking of a Quadcopter using Supertwisting Sliding Mode Control

The main aim of this paper is to present a robust trajectory tracking of a quadcopter. A quadcopter is a complex, highly non-linear and under-actuated system. Hence, a non-linear control strategy which expands the operating region and improves the stability is best suited. For this purpose a super-twisting sliding mode control (STSMC) strategy is applied which is robust against modelling uncertainties and matched external disturbances. The effectiveness of the presented approach is verified through numerical simulations. A comparative analysis of the applied STSMC technique with a robust backstepping procedure based SMC is done. Results indicate that the applied control algorithm, guarantees enhanced performance in terms of improved trajectory tracking errors along with chattering attenuation.