UC Santa Cruz

In this paper, we design a hybrid controller based on the concept of centrally synergistic potential functions on the n-dimensional sphere to achieve global tracking of an attitude reference as well as exponential stabilization of the position and velocity of a vectored-thrust vehicle. The proposed hybrid attitude controller renders a partial attitude reference globally exponentially stable, and the full attitude reference globally attractive and locally exponentially stable. This controller is then combined with a position controller for the quadrotor vehicle for tracking of a given reference. Simulation results are provided so as to demonstrate the performance of the proposed controller.