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Mathematical Modeling and Validation of the Aerial Robot Control System with the Pixhawk Flight Controller

Amin Rajawana and Pruittikorn Smithmaitrie
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand

Abstract—Modeling of an aerial robotic control system for cooperative working robots initially needs a mathematical model of the robot. This work presents a validated cross configuration quadcopter model with the stabilized flight control system. Coefficients and parameters regarding the stability control of the aerial robot, i.e., throttle-to-RPM conversion, thrust coefficient, torque coefficient and moment of inertia, are obtained by the experiments. These measured parameters yield the better flight simulation compared with the product datasheet values. Then, the experimental coefficients and parameters are defined in the MATLAB/Simulink model based on Newton-Euler equations. This study analyzes system responses and simulates the flight stability controlled system of the Pixhawk flight controller in the horizontal plane and vertical direction. After that, the flight response of the mathematical model is compared with the actual flight response. The results show that the model of the UAV flight control system has similar characteristic to the actual flight. Thus, the presented mathematical model and control parameters could be adopted for further design on the aerial robot control system such as a multi-robot cooperative task.

Index Terms—quadcopter, mathematical model, PID controller, pixhawk, flight controller, experimental validation

Cite: Amin Rajawana and Pruittikorn Smithmaitrie, "Mathematical Modeling and Validation of the Aerial Robot Control System with the Pixhawk Flight Controller," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 9, No. 7, pp. 1065-1071, July 2020. DOI: 10.18178/ijmerr.9.7.1065-1071

Copyright © 2020 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.