Fast Terminal Sliding Mode Super Twisting Controller For Position And Altitude Tracking of the Quadrotor

This paper proposes a fast terminal sliding mode super twisting controller (FTSMSTC) design for quadrotor position and altitude tracking in the presence of bounded disturbances. A nonlinear fast terminal sliding manifold has been proposed for fast convergence of the tracking error to zero in finite time unlike the conventional sliding mode control (CSMC) that guarantee only asymptotic convergence of the tracking error. The super twisting reaching law has been proposed to deal with the chattering phenomena, which is inherent in the CSMC. The finite time stability of the complete closed loop system is investigated using Lyapunov stability theory and an analytical expression for the convergence time has also been derived. The effectiveness of the designed controller is checked against the CSMC using MATLAB simulation. The controller has been experimentally validated using the DJI Matrice M100 as a proof of utility in real time applications.