Position Control of Tethered UAV with Onboard Inertial Sensors

In practice, tethered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are often used to address the problems faced by traditional UAVs, such as poor endurance, wind resistance, and potential safety hazards. Tethered UAVs usually work in rough or GPS-denied environments. Thus, precise landing control is critical for their recovery. In this paper, a new control strategy is proposed and the relative position of the tethered UAV can be controlled to the target while keeping the cable taut without GPS. A stability analysis of the proposed controller based on the Lyapunov function is given. Simulation and experimental results are provided to show the effectiveness and robustness of the control strategy.