Comparison of PD, PID and Sliding-Mode Position Controllers for V–Tail Quadcopter Stability

In this paper, a comparison of PD, PID, and SMC position controllers for a V-tail quadcopter is presented. First, a customized design of the V-tail quadcopter is shown to know the parameters of this structure and compare them with the commonly × structure quadcopter used in most papers. Then, the dynamic analysis of the V-tail quadcopter using the Newton-Euler formulation is presented. The main contribution of this paper remains in the design and Lyapunov stability analysis of the PD, PID, and SMC position controllers for the V-tail quadcopter because the robot manipulator methodology was used, treating the V-tail quadcopter as a robot manipulator. The simulation results validate the proposed controllers and algorithms for the V-tail quadcopter when the three controllers reach the desired position. Also, a non-conventional variable is introduced to study the stability analysis of unmanned aerial vehicles when controlled by PID position controller. Finally, a comparison between the three designed controllers for the V-tail quadcopter is presented, where the differences between each can be appreciated. So that, for the first time, three controllers for the V-tail quadcopter designed using the robot manipulator theory is presented.