Quadrotor control: A Linear MPC approach for Non-Linear dynamics

This paper presents a comprehensive study on the development and implementation of a robust framework for deploying a linear model predictive controller (MPC) to control a non-linear system of a quadrotor efficiently. We also demonstrate a workflow to clone the physical parameters of a quadrotor i.e. mass and moment of inertia in the Gazebo physics simulator to guarantee test results that are closest to reality in simulations. The quadrotor firmware was integrated with the MAVROS package for ROS Noetic in order to have a high-level control over the UAV thereby enabling us to focus on the control problem without needing to manage low-level control explicitly. The aboveproposed approach was deployed on a quadrotor flying indoors while localising using the OptiTrack motion capture system and the results show the ability of the proposed controller setup to be able to make the quadrotor follow a reference trajectory while respecting the quadrotor velocity and acceleration constraints.