Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for the Stabilization of a Wheeled Unmanned Aerial Vehicle on a Pipe

This letter addresses the task of stabilizing a wheeled unmanned aerial vehicle on a pipe, which is an emerging application in oil and gas facilities for nondestructive measurements. After the derivation of the dynamic model of the system, a discrete-time nonlinear model predictive controller is designed over a finite horizon. The analysis of the asymptotic stability of the designed controller is carried out. Numerical tests show the performance and the robustness of the proposed solution.