Control of Fixed-wing UAV Using Optimized PID Controller with the Adaptive Genetic Algorithm

Aiming at the time-varying and nonlinear problems of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system, a UAV flight control algorithm was proposed based on PID control algorithm and the adaptive genetic algorithm (GA). On the basis of the traditional algorithm, the settling time was considered as the influencing factors of the objective function. The optimal index was determined by using the overshoot, rise time and settling time of the system response as variables, and adjusting the corresponding weight according to the actual situation to change the system response result. Moreover, the crossover probability and mutation probability in GA could be adaptively changed, so that the optimal parameters in the PID control process could be quickly and accurately found. Based on the rigid body dynamics model and kinematic model of the fixed-wing UAV, the simulation models of five control loops were designed in MATLAB/Simulink, namely the pitch angle, roll angle, yaw angle, speed and height control loops. Compared with the traditional PID controller, the system responses of the five control loops were significantly improved with faster response speed, and less than 5% overshoot. The proposed algorithm had strong adaptability and anti-interference ability.