Robust Backstepping Control Combined with Fractional-Order Tracking Differentiator and Fractional-Order Nonlinear Disturbance Observer for Unknown Quadrotor UAV Systems

In this paper, we studied a fractional-order robust backstepping control (BSC) combined with a fractional-order tracking differentiator and a fractional-order nonlinear disturbance observer for a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system. A fractional-order filtered error and a fractional-order tracking differentiator were utilized in a conventional BSC system to improve the positioning control performance of a highly coupled nonlinear quadrotor UAV system and bypass the differentiation issue of the virtual control and compensation of the transformation error in the conventional BSC design. A new fractional-order disturbance observer with the sine hyperbolic function was then proposed to enhance the estimation performance of the uncertain quadrotor UAV. Sequential comparative simulations were conducted, demonstrating that the proposed positioning controller and observer utilizing fractional-order calculus outperformed those of the conventional controller and observer systems.