Adaptive PID Control Law for Trajectory Tracking of Quadcopters

In this paper, an Adaptive Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) is proposed, and a detailed comparison between fixed-gain Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) and Adaptive PID controller is performed to explore the performance of the quadrotor using Pixhawk flight controller in a path designed by QGround Control software-based artificial environment. Based on the linearized model for the quadcopter's nonlinear dynamics model, an adaptive PID controller is used to track the given trajectory. The newly proposed adaptive PID controller is validated via the Spring Mass Damper (SMD) system first. Afterwards, the performance of the proposed control law is demonstrated for the quadcopter altitude climb in simulation. The entire model created is thoroughly evaluated in the MATLAB-SIMULINK platform. Next, the proposed adaptive PID is tested in hardware in the loop to see its efficacy in real time. Adaptive PID controller outperforms the traditional PID controller in terms of maximum overshoot and response time, both of which are critical in terms of the manoeuvrability of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).