148
1, JANUARY 2021
Modeling and Trajectory Tracking Control for
Flapping-Wing Micro Aerial Vehicles
Wei He, Senior Member, IEEE, Xinxing Mu, Liang Zhang, and Yao Zou
Abstract—This paper studies the trajectory tracking problem
of flapping-wing micro aerial vehicles (FWMAVs) in the
longitudinal plane. First of all, the kinematics and dynamics of the
FWMAV are established, wherein the aerodynamic force and
torque generated by flapping wings and the tail wing are
explicitly formulated with respect to the flapping frequency of the
wings and the degree of tail wing inclination. To achieve
autonomous tracking, an adaptive control scheme is proposed
under the hierarchical framework. Specifically, a bounded
position controller with hyperbolic tangent functions is designed
to produce the desired aerodynamic force, and a pitch command
is extracted from the designed position controller. Next, an
adaptive attitude controller is designed to track the extracted
pitch command, where a radial basis function neural network is
introduced to approximate the unknown aerodynamic
perturbation torque. Finally, the flapping frequency of the wings
and the degree of tail wing inclination are calculated from the
designed position and attitude controllers, respectively. In terms
of Lyapunov’s direct method, it is shown that the tracking errors
are bounded and ultimately converge to a small neighborhood
around the origin. Simulations are carried out to verify the
effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.
Index Terms—Flapping-wing micro aerial vehicles (FWMAVs),
modeling, neural networks, trajectory tracking.
I. Introduction
IOMIMETIC robots are popular research subjects in
B many fields of robotics [1]–[3]. In recent decades,
flapping-wing micro aerial vehicles (FWMAVs), as a type of
innovative flying robots, have received considerable attention
in the aviation community [4], [5]. Characterized by good
agility, ability for concealment and high flight efficiency, they
have extensive potential applications in military and civil
fields including disaster investigation, intelligence collection,
anti-terrorism reconnaissance and so forth [6], [7]. The
research of the FWMAVs is comprehensive and integrates
Manuscript received February 28, 2020; revised April 28, 2020; accepted
June 3, 2020. This work was supported in part by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (61933001, 62061160371), Joint Funds of
Equipment Pre-Research and Ministry of Education of China (6141A02033
339), and Beijing Top Discipline for Artificial Intelligent Science and
Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing. Recommended
by Associate Editor Dongpu Cao. (Corresponding author: Wei He.)
Citation: W. He, X. X. Mu, L. Zhang, and Y. Zou, “Modeling and
trajectory tracking control for flapping-wing micro aerial vehicles,”
IEEE/CAA J. Autom. Sinica, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 148–156, Jan. 2021.
The authors are with the Institute of Artificial Intelligence, University of
Science and Technology Beijing, and also with the School of Automation and
Electrical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing,
Beijing 100083, China (e-mail: weihe@ieee.org; muxinxing@126.com; 1881
1329798@163.com; zouyao@ustb.edu.cn).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JAS.2020.1003417
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IEEE/CAA JOURNAL OF AUTOMATICA SINICA, VOL. 8, NO.
multiple disciplines, e.g., control, computer science,
mechanics and informatics, etc.
Researchers have made great efforts in developing
FWMAVs over the past few years [8], [9]. By imitating
different creatures, FWMAVs are generally categorized into
insect-scale micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) and bird-scale
micro aerial vehicles (MAVs). Currently, typical representa-
tives of the insect-scale FWMAVs are the “Robobee” [4] and
“nano hummingbird” [10]. Wood’s team from Harvard
University invents an insect-scale FWMAV “Robobee” by
using high-performance piezoelectric actuators, and such an
FWMAV is capable of hovering at a fixed height [4].
However, “Robobee” cannot be powered sufficiently for long-
duration maneuvers by the limitation of load capacity.
AeroVironment, Inc. develops an insect-scale FWMAV “nano
hummingbird” [10], which can finish some specific tasks. e.g.,
vertical take-off and landing, hovering, free flight forward and
backward. For the bird-like FWMAVs, researchers first built a
bat-like “Bat Bot2” by imitating the limb structure and flight
mode of a bat [11]. To facilitate the flight, “Bat Bot2” adopts
a boundary control method to make its wings flutter in
accordance with the desired trajectory. Festo designs a light-
weighted bird-like FWMAV “Smartbird” by taking a
streamlined shape and wing twist into account, which is able
to fly stably by remote control [12]. He’s team from the
University of Science and Technology Beijing developed a
bird-like FWMAV “USTBird” driven by 2 servo motors,
which changes course by asymmetric flapping of its wings.
Although these FWMAVs show good flight performance,
having an autonomous flight mode is not taken into account.
To achieve autonomous flight, it is crucial to determine the
driving behaviors of the FWMAVs. For the insect-scale
MAVs, a flapping frequency is set to around 20–600 Hz for
providing sufficient thrust to allow them to hover [13]. To
adjust their flight attitude, they are generally steered by
fluttering the wings asymmetrically [14]. The flapping
frequency of most bird-like MAVs is below 10 Hz for level
flight. Their lift mainly results from the aerodynamic force
generated by the forward flight speed, and in the meantime,
their flight orientation is altered by adjusting both the flapping
and tail wings [15]. For dynamic analysis and modeling, the
power curves associated with different flight modes and
speeds of several certain species have been extracted in [16],
[17]. Meantime, some relevant analysis has been given
therein. In addition, the leading-edge vortex effect on the tail
wing in the aerodynamic performance has been formulated in
[18]. Besides, the external disturbances have an important
influence on the performances of FWMAVs and is considered
HE et al.: MODELING AND TRAJECTORY TRACKING CONTROL FOR FWMAVs
in practice [19], [20]. In this paper, we focus on the modeling
of bird-like FWMAVs, which is characterized by nonlinearity,
parametric coupling, and uncertainty.
Many intelligent methods have been developed and applied
in various fields [21]–[24], and many control approaches are
applied in the FWMAVs to achieve autonomous flight
[25]–[27]. In [25], a DelFly Explorer equipped with a 0.98
gram autopilot unit and a 4.0 gram onboard stereo vision
system is established, and a stereo vision algorithm is
developed to achieve autonomous obstacle avoidance. In [28],
the location of the trailing edges at the wing roots is adjusted
to generate control torques through an angular rate feedback
control scheme for the insect-scale tailless FWMAV, which
achieves stable vertical flight and hovering. In [26], the
authors propose a hybrid control policy which combines
model-based nonlinear control with model-free reinforcement
learning. The model-free reinforcement learning policy is
trained to accomplish fast evasive maneuvers on the
hummingbird robot. In [27], neural network based control
strategies with full state and output feedback are developed
for the attitude and position tracking of the FWMAV. In
particular, a model-based nonlinear controller based on hybrid
control strategy is proposed therein to guarantee the stability
of the closed-loop FWMAV system.
Although multiple mathematical models and control
strategies have been proposed for the FWMAVs, most of them
just consider aerodynamic force and torque as control inputs
and do not establish their aerodynamic relationship with
respect to actual physical actuators. Therefore, it is important
to use these control strategies in practice for reliable flight. In
this paper, we develop a bird-like FWMAV, which has 2
degrees of freedom (DOFs) of flapping frequency and tail
wing inclination to achieve automatous trajectory tracking on
the vertical plane. It is important to formulate the relationship
of the aerodynamic force and torque with respect to flapping
frequency and tail wing inclination for real applications.
Moreover, we also consider the airflow effect of flapping
wings in the aerodynamics of the tail wing in the modeling of
the FWMAVs. Based on the established model, a neural
network control scheme is proposed under the hierarchical
framework such that trajectory tracking of the FWMAV on
the longitudinal plane is achieved. Specifically, a position
controller with control input saturation in [29] is synthesized,
and the frequency of flapping wings and a pitch command are
extracted from the synthesized position controller. Further, an
attitude controller is synthesized by introducing a radial basis
function neural network for the pitch to track commands,
where the neural network is used to eliminate the aerodynamic
effect caused by the airflow of flapping wings. Finally, the tail
wing inclination is extracted from the synthesized attitude
controller. With Lyapunov’s direct method, it is shown that
tracking errors driven by the proposed control scheme are
bounded and ultimately converge to a neighborhood around
the origin. The main contributions of this paper are
enumerated as follows:
1) This paper formulates the aerodynamic force and torque
generated by the actual flapping frequency of flapping wings
and tail wing inclination when constructing the system model
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149
of the FWMAV. Moreover, a hierarchical framework is
introduced to exploit the cascaded structure of the established
model for control scheme development.
2) This paper considers the unknown aerodynamic
perturbation of flapping wings on the torque generated by the
tail wing. A radial basis function neural network is introduced
to estimate and compensate for this perturbation and for
improving tracking accuracy.
3) This paper designs a bounded position controller with
hyperbolic tangent functions to guarantee a bounded
aerodynamic force. Also, this design effectively alleviates the
coupling between the closed-loop position and attitude error
systems, and thus facilitates the stability analysis greatly.
The remaining sections of this paper are organized as
follows. Section II states the model and control objective of
the FWMAV. Section III presents the main results of this
paper including the control scheme development and the
stability analysis. Section IV performs simulations to validate
and highlight the performance of the proposed control
scheme. Finally, Section V makes conclusions and draws
future works.
II. Problem Statements
A. System Models
Generally, an FWMAV is modeled in three reference
frames (shown in Fig. 1) as follows:
Inertia frame: S i = {oi xi yi zi }, origin oi is fixed at a point on
the ground, axes xi and zi point to the north and east, and axis
yi is determined by the right hand rule.
Track frame: S t = {ot xt yt zt }, origin ot is located at the center
of mass (c.m.) of the fuselage, axis xt is along the velocity
direction, axis zt is perpendicular to the plane containing axis
xt and pointing to the right, and axis yt is determined by the
right hand rule.
Body frame: S b = {ob xb yb zb }, origin ob coincides with ot ,
axis xb points towards the head, axis zb is perpendicular to the
plane of symmetry containing axis xb and points to the right,
and axis yb is determined by the right hand rule.
yb yt
yi
xb
Ob
Oi τ Ot V xt
zb xi
zi zt
Fig. 1. Reference frames of a typical FWMAV.
For the convenience of modeling, some reasonable
assumptions are made as follows:
Assumption 1: The aerodynamic force of the tail wing and
the torque generated by the drag of the tail wing are so small
that it is negligible.
Assumption 2: The increments of thrust and lift are
150 IEEE/CAA JOURNAL OF AUTOMATICA SINICA, VOL. 8, NO. 1, JANUARY 2021

proportional to the flapping frequency. TABLE I

Remark 1: Studies in [18], [30] indicate that the bird’s tail Model Parameter Definitions
has nearly no effect on lift and drag. By considering the short Symbol Description Unit
arm with respect to c.m., the torque generated by the drag of AR Aspect ratio –
the tail wing can be negligible. However, the lift generated by
L Wing length m
the tail wing still contributes to the pitch torque arising from
lec Distance from the center of gravity to
its long arm with respect to c.m.. Generally, the aerodynamic the center of lift of flapping wings m
force of the FWMAV is related to the flapping frequency lt Distance from the center of gravity to m
the tail wing’s hinge
[31]–[33]. There exists almost a linear relationship between
lh Distance from the tail wing’s hinge to the
the flapping frequency and the average of lift, and the thrust is m
aerodynamic center of the tail wing
almost proportional to the flapping frequency [34]. In this S Area of flapping wings m2
paper, the FWMAV’s tail is designed with a biological tail St Area of the tail wing m2
structure, therefore, Assumptions 1 and 2 are reasonable. ρ kg/m3
Air density
Under Assumptions 1 and 2, and according to Newton’s m Total mass kg
second law, the longitudinal motion of the FWMAV can be
g Acceleration of gravity m/s2
formulated as follows [35], [36]:
ν Correction coefficient –
M q̈ + G = uc (1)
τ Torque of axis zb N·m
where θ Pitch rad
   
[ ]  m 0 0  [ ]  x  α Angle of attack rad
Mi 0   p  
M= =  0 m 0  , q = =  y  γ Flightpath slope rad
0 J   θ  
0 0 J θ m/s
    V Free stream velocity
[ ]  0  [ ]  F xi 
Gi   Fi   J Moment of inertia about the axis zb m4
G= =  mg  , uc = =  Fyi  .
0   τ  CD Drag coefficient –
0 τ
CL Lift coefficient –
Specifically, p = [x, y]T is the real trajectory of c.m. of the kx Frequency increment coefficient at axis xb –
fuselage in the inertia frame, and other parameter definitions ky
are given in Table I. Frequency increment coefficient at axis yb –
Moreover, under Assumption 2, the aerodynamic force R12 Rotation matrix from 2 to 1 –
components generated by flapping wings in the track frame f Flapping frequency Hz
are expressed as θt Tail wing inclination rad
ρ F·i , T ·i The aerodynamics forces of the flapping wings N
F xk = k x f − C D (α)S V 2 and the tail wing in the inertia frame
2 F·t , T ·t The aerodynamics forces of the flapping wings
ρ and the tail wing in the track frame N
Fyk = ky f + C L (α)S V 2 (2) The aerodynamics forces of the flapping wings
2 F·b , T ·b N
and the tail wing in the body frame
where the aerodynamic parameters are also defined in Table I.
According to [37], the lift and drag coefficients are
determined by perpendicular to the body axis on the plane of symmetry of
the tail wing, is expressed as
C D (α) = 1.55 cos(2.04α − 9.82◦ ) + 1.92 ρ
C L (α) = 1.58 sin(2.13α − 7.2◦ ) + 0.225. (3) T yb = C L (θt )S t v2b (6)
2
Correspondingly, the aerodynamic force expressed in the where vb = V cos α is the air speed along the direction of axis
inertia frame satisfies xb . It can be known from Fig. 2. The pitch torque in the body
frame is expressed as
Fi = Rit (−γ)Ft (4)
τ = −Fyb lec − (T yb + δ)(lh + lt cos θt ) (7)
where γ = θ − α , F = [F xi , Fyi ]T , Ft = [F xk , Fyk ]T and
[ ] where δ is the aerodynamic perturbation on the tail wing
cos γ − sin γ
R (−γ) =
it
. resulting from the flutter of flapping wings.
sin γ cos γ
Remark 2: Due to complex aerodynamic characteristics, it is
Moreover, the aerodynamic force (2) expressed in the body imperative to determine the aerodynamic perturbation δ . A
frame satisfies potential formulation was presented in [38] from the fixed-
wing perspective. In particular
Fb = Rbt (α)Ft (5)
 
where Fb = [F xb , Fyb and ]T 2C L (α) ∂C∂α
L (α)
 ν2 ( π4 )2 + ν2 
[ ] δ= ln π 2 2 − ln  QS (8)
cos α sin α AR π3 (4) +ν ν2
R (α) =
bt
.
− sin α cos α where Q = 0.5ρV 2 and ν is the correction term. Note that it is
In addition, the aerodynamic force of the tail wing, which is related to the attack angleα and the free stream velocity V . In

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HE et al.: MODELING AND TRAJECTORY TRACKING CONTROL FOR FWMAVs 151

this paper, the aerodynamic perturbation δ is assumed to be where u p = Rit (−γd )Ft is the position controller to be
unavailable and is approximated by a neural network. specified, R e = Rit (−γ) − Rit (−γd ), and γd is the command
flightpath slope. Define ∆x = xd (ti+1 ) − x(ti ) and
yt
yb up ∆y = yd (ti+1 ) − y(ti ). Then the command flightpath slope can
yi Fyt Fi be evaluated by γd = arctan(∆y/∆x).
Define the position tracking error e p1 = p1 − pd and the
Fyb
xb velocity tracking error e p2 = p2 − ṗd . By virtue of (9), their
Fxb V dynamics are derived as
αd
Tyb lt γ xt
ė p1 = e p2
Ot(b) Fxt e t − Gi ) − p̈d .
ė p2 = Mi−1 (u p + RF (10)
θt
Oi lh l ec xi
The position controller with saturation is synthesized in the
Gi following form:
u p = Gi + Mi p̈d − Mi l1 tanh(k1 e p1 + k2 e p2 )
Fig. 2. Aerodynamic force analysis diagram. − Mi l2 tanh(k2 e p2 ) (11)
where l1, l2 , k1 and k2 are positive control parameters. By
B. Control Objective substituting (11) into (10), the following closed-loop position
In this paper, we focus on the solution to the trajectory error dynamics can be derived
tracking control problem of the FWMAV on the longitudinal ė p1 = e p2
plane. In particular, given a reference trajectory pd = [xd , yd ]T , ė p2 = −l1 tanh(k1 e p1 +k2 e p2 )
we intend to design flapping frequency f and tail wing e t.
− l2 tanh(k2 e p2 ) + Mi−1 RF (12)
inclination θt via an adaptive control scheme such that
limt→∞ |p(t) − pd (t)∥ ≤ ϵ , where ϵ > 0 is a sufficiently small Since the position controller u p has been determined by
constant. Since the FWMAV system (1) is of a cascaded (11), the flapping frequency f and the pitch command θd can
structure consisting of an outer position loop and an inner be extracted accordingly. Note from (2) that the aerodynamic
attitude loop (see Fig. 3 for illustration), the control scheme force [F xk , Fyk ]T is nonlinear with respect to the flapping
design is under a hierarchical framework such that the frequency f and the command attack angle αd . To solve this
position and attitude loops are studied in sequence. Also, note nonlinear equation, we introduce the trust-region-dogleg
from (7) that, the pitch torque τ is subject to an unknown algorithm [42] such that f and αd are evaluated. Moreover,
aerodynamic perturbation δ . We introduce a neural network the pitch command can be determined by θd = αd + γd.
technique to approximate and compensate for these
B. Attitude Controller Synthesis
perturbations which improves tracking accuracy [39]–[41].
Define θ1 = θ and θ2 = θ̇ . Based on (1) and (7), their
f p
Mi p + Gi = Fi dynamics are derived as
θ̇1 = θ2
θt θ
Jθ = τ θ̇2 = J −1 (ur + ∆δ ) (13)
where ur = −Fyb lec − T yb (lh + lt cos θt ) is the attitude controller
Fig. 3. Cascaded structure of the FWMAV system.
and ∆δ = δ(lh + lt cos θt ) is the lumped uncertainty caused by
unknown δ . Define the pitch tracking error er1 = θ1 − θd and
III. Main Results
its changing rate error er2 = θ2 − αr, where αr = θ̇d − k3 er1 with
In this section, an adaptive control scheme under the k3 being a positive constant. It follows from (13) that their
hierarchical framework is developed to solve the concerned dynamics satisfy
tracking control problem of the FWMAV. In particular, a
position controller with input saturations is synthesized for ėr1 = −k3 er1 + er2
position tracking to pd . Then, the flapping frequency f and ėr2 = J −1 (ur + ∆δ ) − α̇r . (14)
the pitch command θd are extracted from the synthesized Due to the unavailability of ∆δ, a radial basis function
position controller. Next, the attitude controller introducing neural network with l nodes is introduced to approximate it. In
the neural network adaptation is synthesized for attitude particular,
tracking to θd . Finally, the tail wing inclination θt is extracted
from the synthesized attitude controller. Besides these, a ∆δ = (W ∗ )T S (z) + ϵ (15)
detailed stability analysis is also performed. where W∗ ∈ Rl is the weight vector, z = [α, V, θt ]T ,
S (z) : R → R is the radial basis function vector with each
3 l
A. Position Controller Synthesis component being in a Gaussian function form [43], and ϵ is
Define p1 = p and p2 = ṗ . It follows from (1) that the bounded estimation error. To achieve pitch tracking, the
ṗ1 = p2 attitude controller is synthesized in the following form:
e t − Gi )
ṗ2 = Mi−1 (u p + RF (9) b T S (z)
ur = −er1 − k4 er2 + J α̇r − W (16)

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152 IEEE/CAA JOURNAL OF AUTOMATICA SINICA, VOL. 8, NO. 1, JANUARY 2021

Position loop

Desired trajectory pd ep1 ep2 f Actual position p

Position controller
Actual attitude θ

Command attitude θd er1 er2 θt

Attitude controller

Adaptive law

Attitude loop

Fig. 4. Block diagram of control scheme.

b is the estimation of
where k4 is a positive control gain and W controller.
∗
W . Moreover, the adaptive law with a σ-modification for W b Theorem 1: Consider the attitude error system (18). The
is designed as synthesized attitude controller (16) with the adaptive law (17)
guarantees that the attitude tracking error er1, its changing rate
ḃ = ξ(S (z)er2 − σW)
W b (17) error er2 and the estimation error W e are bounded and
where ξ and σ are positive adaptive parameters. In addition, ultimately converge to small neighborhoods around origin,
by considering (15) and substituting the synthesized attitude respectively.
controller (16) into (14), the following closed-loop pitch error Proof: Consider a Lyapunov function candidate as
dynamics can be derived:
1 J 1 e 2
ėr1 = −k3 er1 + er2 V1 = e2r1 + e2r2 + ∥W∥ . (19)
2 2 2ξ
e T S (z) + ϵ)
ėr2 = J −1 (−er1 − k4 er2 + W (18) Its derivative along (18) satisfies
e ∗ b
where W = W − W is the estimation error.
e T S (z)+ϵ)
V̇1 = er1 (− k3 er1 +er2 )+er2 (− er1 −k4 er2 +W
Since the attitude controller ur has been determined by (16),
the tail wing inclination θt can be extracted. Due to their 1 e T ḃ
− W W
nonlinear relation, the trust-region-dogleg algorithm is still ξ
available here to obtain θt . 1 e T ḃ
= − k3 e2r1 − k4 e2r2 − W (W − ξS (z)er2 )+er2 ϵ. (20)
Remark 3: Intuitively, Fig. 4 illustrates the overall control ξ
scheme implementation progress. Specifically, a brief By substituting the adaptive law (17) into (20), it follows
description is made as follows: that
1) Calculate the position controller u p via (11).
2) Extract the flapping frequency f and the command angle eTW
V̇1 = −k3 e2r1 − k4 e2r2 + σW b + er2 ϵ
of attack αd via (1) and the trust-region-dogleg algorithm. e T (W ∗ − W)
e + er2 ϵ
≤ − k3 e2r1 − k4 e2r2 + σW
Then, calculate the pitch command θd = αd + γd.
3) Calculate the weight estimation W b via (17). Then k4 2 σ e 2 σ ∗ 2 1 2
evaluate the attitude controller ur via (16). ≤ − k3 e2r1 − er2 − ∥W∥ + ∥W ∥ + ϵ
2 2 2 2k4
4) Extract the tail wing inclination θt from the determined
attitude controller ur . ≤ − µ1 V 1 + C 1 (21)
where µ1 = µ2 /µ3 with µ2 = min{k3 , k4 /2, σ/2} and µ3 = max
C. Stability Analysis {1/2, J/2, 1/2ξ}, and C1 = σ∥W ∗ ∥2 /2 + ϵ 2 /2k4.
In this subsection, we focus on the stability analysis of the
Next, by multiplying both sides of (21) with eµ1 t and
closed-loop system (12) and (18), which is examined to be of
performing analytical operations, it can be derived that
a cascaded structure. We carry out the analysis based on a
hierarchical framework. In particular, we show that the d
(V1 eµ1 t ) ≤ C1 eµ1 t . (22)
attitude tracking error is bounded and ultimately converges to dt
a small neighborhood of origin. Further, we show that the According to comparison lemma, it follows that
position tracking error is also bounded and ultimately ( )
C1 −µ1 t C1
converges to a small neighborhood of origin. Moreover, these V1 (t) ≤ V1 (0) − e + . (23)
neighborhoods can be tuned arbitrarily small by adjusting the µ1 µ1
control parameters. Before proceeding with the main results, a This implies that V1 is bounded and ultimately converges to
useful lemma is presented. the compact set
Lemma 1 [44]: Given x ∈ S = {x ∈ Rn | ∥x∥ < x̄, x̄ > 0}, there { }
C1
exists a positive constant χ( x̄) such that χ( x̄)∥x∥ ≤ ∥ tanh(x)∥ ≤ ΩV = V1 ∈ R+ |V1 ≤ .
∥x∥. µ1
The next theorem indicates that the ultimately bounded e
This, according to (19), further implies that er1, er2 and W
attitude tracking is achieved with the synthesized attitude are bounded and converge to the compact sets

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HE et al.: MODELING AND TRAJECTORY TRACKING CONTROL FOR FWMAVs 153

{ √ }
2C1 − k2 ΘT Θ − l2 k1 eTp2 tanh(η2 )
Ωer1 = er1 ∈ R||er1 | ≤
µ1 l2 k1
{ √ } ≤ −k2 ΘT Θ − tanh(η2 )T tanh(η2 )
2C1 k2
Ωer2 = er2 ∈ R||er2 | ≤
Jµ1 = − tanh(η)T D tanh(η) (27)
{ √ }
e ∈ Rl |∥W∥
e ≤ 2C1 ξ where
ΩW = W  2 
µ1  l1 k2 I2l1 l2 k 2 I2 
respectively. Note that the compact sets Ωer1 and Ωer2 can be D =  l2 k1 
(l2 k2 +
2
l1 l2 k2 I2 )I2 
made arbitrarily small by sufficiently increasing the control k2
parameters k3 and k4. ■ with I2 being a 2 × 2 unit matrix. There exists an invertible
In view of (19) and (23), it is also trivial to show that for matrix
any ς > 0 and τ1 > 0 , a sufficiently large µ1 is sufficient to  
guarantee ∥er1 (t)∥ ≤ ς , t ∈ [τ1 , ∞). By implementing this result,  l2 

 I − I
the following theorem states that the ultimately bounded T =  2
l1 
2

02 I2
position tracking is fulfilled by the synthesized position
controller (11). such that
Theorem 2: Consider the position error system (10). The  2 
 l1 k2 I2 02 
synthesized position controller (11) guarantees that the T T DT =  l2 k1  .
 (28)
position tracking error e p1 and the velocity tracking error e p2 02 I2
k2
are bounded and ultimately converge to small neighborhoods
It thus follows that
around the origin, respectively.
Proof: It is not hard to validate that the closed-loop position −k2 ΘT Θ − l2 k1 eTp2 tanh(k2 e p2 ) ≤ −χ2 ∥η∥2 (29)
error system (12) satisfies the Lipschitz condition. Therefore,
l2 k 1 2
it is unlikely for the evolved state trajectory to escape to where χ2 = min{l12 k2 χ2 , χ }. In addition, it also follows
infinity within [0, τ1 ]. We next focus on the time interval k2
that
[τ1 , ∞) . Consider a Lyapunov function candidate as ( )T
w k1 e p1 +k2 e p2 e t∥
l1 k2 tanh(η1 )+l2 k2 tanh(η2 ) + k1 e p2 ∥Mi−1 RF
V2 = l1 tanh(s)T ds ( )
0 k1 e t∥
w k2 e p2 k1 ≤ l1 k2 ∥η1 ∥ + (l2 k2 + )∥η2 ∥ ∥Mi−1 RF
+ l2 tanh(s)T ds + ∥e p2 ∥2 . (24) k2
0 2 e t∥
≤ χ3 ∥η∥ ∥M −1 RF (30)
Let η1 = k1 e p1 + k2 e p2 , η2 = k2 e p2 and η = [ηT1 , ηT2 ]T . Given a i

compact set {η ∈ R4 |∥η∥ < η, η > 0}, according to Lemma 1, where χ3 = max{l1 k2 , (l2 k2 + k1 /k2 }. Combining (29) and (30),
there exists a positive constant χ = χ(η) such that we obtain that
χ(η)∥η∥ < ∥ tanh(η)∥ < ∥η∥. In such a case, it follows that e t ∥∥η∥.
V̇2 ≤ −χ2 ∥η∥2 + χ3 ∥Mi−1 RF (31)
1 k1
V2 > χ(l1 ηT1 η1 + l2 ηT2 η2 ) + 2 ηT2 η2 > χ1 ∥η∥2 (25) Next, note from (11) that, the aerodynamic force ∥Ft ∥ can be
2 2k2 upper bounded by a positive constant F t . Besides, according
1 1 k1 to the properties
√ of√the rotation matrix, we obtain that
where χ1 = min{ χl1 , (χl2 + 2 )}. For t ∈ [τ1 , ∞), the e
∥RFt ∥ ≤ 2 2∥Ft ∥ ≤ 2 2 F t . Hence, for t ∈ [t¯1 , ∞), V̇2 (t)
2 2 k2
further satisfies
derivative of V2 (t) along (12) satisfies √
2 2 Ft
V̇2 = l1 tanh(η1 )T (k1 ė p1 +k2 ė p2 )+l2 k2 tanh(η2 )T ė p2 V̇2 ≤ −χ2 ∥η∥2 + χ3 ∥η∥. (32)
m
+ k1 eTp2 ė p2 Therefore, η is bounded and ultimately √ converges to the
χ3 2 2 F t
= − l12 k2 tanh(η1 )T tanh(η1 )− l1 l2 k2 tanh(η1 )T tanh(η2 ) compact set Ωη = {η ∈ R4 |∥η∥ ≤ }. Moreover, in
χ2 m
order to guarantee ∥η∥ < η , it is trivial that
− l1 l2 k2 tanh(η2 )T tanh(η1 ) − l22 k2 tanh(η2 )T tanh(η2 ) √
χ3 2 2 F t
− l2 k2 eTp2 tanh(η2 )+[l1 k2 tanh(η1 )+l2 k2 tanh(η2 ) < η.
χ2 m
e t
+k1 e p2 ]T Mi−1 RF This implies that
{ mηχ2 (l1 + l2 )m }
= −k2 ΘT Θ−l2 k1 eTp2 tanh(η2 ) F t < min √ , √ (33)
2 2χ3 2 2
e
+[l1 k2 tanh(η1 )+l2 k2 tanh(η2 )+k1 e p2 ]T Mi−1 RF (26) (l1 + l2 )m
where F t < √ directly results from (12). Finally, by
where Θ = l1 tanh(η1 ) + l2 tanh(η2 ). Moreover, it is trivial to 2 2
show that considering the definition of η, the tracking errors e p1 and e p2

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154 IEEE/CAA JOURNAL OF AUTOMATICA SINICA, VOL. 8, NO. 1, JANUARY 2021

Vertical position (m)

are bounded and ultimately converge to the compact sets
 √ 


 2 2χ3 F t 


4
Ωe p1 = 
e ∈ R |∥e p1 ∥ ≤
2

 p1 χ2 mk1   2
 √ 


 2 2χ3 F t 

 Desired Proposed PD
Ωe p2 =  0
e p2 ∈ R |∥e p2 ∥ ≤ χ2 mk2 
2
 
 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
Horizontal position (m)
(a)
respectively. ■
Remark 4: Note from the proof of Theorem 2 that, the 0.06
position controller (11) guarantees that the aerodynamic force
0.04

Δδ (N·m)
Ft is upper bounded without dependence on the position-loop
states. This effectively alleviates the attitude coupling effect in 0.02
the position loop analysis. Estimation of Δδ Δδ
0
IV. Simulations 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
t (s)
In this section, simulations are undertaken to validate the (b)
proposed control scheme. Consider an FWMAV with its
physical parameters listed in Table II. It is commanded to Fig. 5. Position tracking by the PD and the proposed control and the
track a reference trajectory in the following form: estimation of perturbation torque ∆δ.

xd (t) = 8.34t
5.8
1 1 f for proposed f for PD
yd (t) = − . 5.6
0.2 + 100e−1.6t 0.2 + 100
f (Hz)
5.4
TABLE II 5.2
Physical Parameters
5.0
Parameter Value Parameter Value 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
t (s)
m 0.06 kg ρ 1.29 (kg/m3 ) (a)
S 0.032 m2 St 0.013 m2
10
J 0.35 m4 lec 0.01 m θt for proposed θt for PD
0 10
θt (deg)

lt 0.05 m lh 0.172 m
0
AR 6 ν 10 −10
−10 −20
kx 0.1009 ky 0.001 0 0.5 1.0
−20
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
t (s)
The initial conditions of the concerned FWMAV are cho- (b)
sen as V(0) = 8.34 m/s, [x(0), y(0)]T = [0, 0]T , γ0 = 0, θ0 = 7◦,
θt0 = −10◦ and f0 = 5 Hz. Fig. 6. Control inputs of the PD and the proposed control.
To highlight the control performance of the proposed
control scheme, we compare it with a traditional PD control 16
θd for proposed 12.8
scheme with the position and attitude controllers designed by 14 12.4
θd for PD
12
θ (deg)

the PD method. Since the closed-loop FWMAV is in a θ for proposed 12.0

cascaded structure, the stability of the position loop is 10 θ for PD 8 9 10
dependent on that of the attitude loop. Towards this end, we 8
need to choose larger attitude control parameters than position 6
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
ones in order for faster convergence of the attitude tracking. t (s)
For the PD control scheme, the control parameters are chosen (a)
as k p f = 0.1, kd f = 1 in the position loop and k pθ = 20, kdθ = 8 0.6
in the attitude loop. For the proposed control scheme, the
0.4
controller parameters are specified as l1 = 1, l2 = 1, k1 = 0.1,
eθ (deg)

k2 = 0.2, k3 = 20 and k4 = 8. Moreover, the parameters of the 0.2

introduced neural network are as follows: l = 64 . σ = 0.1, 0

b = 0 . The simulation results are illustrated in eθ for proposed eθ for PD
ξ = 1 and W(0) −0.2
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Figs. 5–8. t (s)
Firstly, Fig. 5 (a) shows the response curves of position (b)
tracking driven by two different controllers with the curve in
Fig.5 (b) showing the estimation of ∆δ with the radial basis Fig. 7. Attitude tracking by the PD and the proposed control and the
function neural network. In addition, Fig. 6 shows that the tracking errors.

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HE et al.: MODELING AND TRAJECTORY TRACKING CONTROL FOR FWMAVs 155

0.01 scheme for longitudinal motion to a general three-dimensional

ex for proposed ex for PD
0 case with both longitudinal and lateral motions. Also, we will
ex (m)

−0.01 apply the proposed control scheme to a practical FWMAV

−0.02
platform for verification.
−0.03
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Wei He (S’09–M’12–SM’16) received the B.Eng.
and the M.Eng. degrees from the College of
Automation Science and Engineering, South China
University of Technology (SCUT), China in 2006
and 2008, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
the National University of Singapore (NUS),
Singapore in 2011. He is currently working as a Full
Professor at the School of Automation and Electrical
Engineering, University of Science and Technology
Beijing, China. He has co-authored 3 books published in Springer and
published over 100 international journal and conference papers. He was
awarded a Newton Advanced Fellowship from the Royal Society, UK. He
was a recipient of the IEEE SMC Society Andrew P. Sage Best Transactions
Paper Award. He is serving the Chair of IEEE SMC Society Beijing Capital
Region Chapter. From 2018, he has been the Chair of Technical Committee
on Autonomous Bionic Robotic Aircraft (TC-ABRA), IEEE Systems, Man
and Cybernetics Society. He is serving as an Associate Editor of IEEE
Transactions on Robotics, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and
Learning Systems, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, IEEE
Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, SCIENCE CHINA
Information Sciences, IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica, Assembly
Automation, and an Editor of Journal of Intelligent Robotic Systems. His
current research interests include robotics, distributed parameter systems, and
intelligent control systems.
Xinxing Mu received the B.Eng. and M.Eng.
degrees from the School of Electrical Engineering,
University of Jinan in 2015 and 2017, respectively.
He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in
control science and engineering with the School of
Automation and Electrical Engineering, University
of Science and Technology Beijing. His current
research interests include FWMAV, intelligent
control, and system modeling.
Liang Zhang received the B.Eng. degree in
intelligence science and technology from the School
of Automation and Electrical Engineering,
University of Science and Technology Beijing in
2019. He is currently working toward the Ph.D.
degree with the School of Automation and Electrical
Engineering, University of Science and Technology
Beijing. His research interests include neural network
control, vibration control, machine learning, and
flexible structures.
Yao Zou received the B.S. degree in automation
from Dalian University of Technology (DUT) in
2010, and the Ph.D. degree in control science and
engineering from Beijing University of Aeronautics
and Astronautics in 2016. He was a Post-Doctoral
Research Fellow with the Department of Precision
Instrument, Tsinghua University from 2017 to 2018.
He is currently an Associate Professor with the
School of Automation and Electrical Engineering,
University of Science and Technology Beijing. His
current research interests include nonlinear control, unmanned aerial vehicle
control, and multiagent control.