Abstract

This study introduces an adaptive restricted controller designed to address the path-tracking challenge encountered by an autonomous quadrotor aerial vehicle navigating through confined spaces. The quadrotor dynamics are represented mathematically using quaternions, facilitating the development of the adaptive control strategy. The proposed controller incorporates an adaptive state-dependent gain to regulate the quadrotor's motion within permissible airspace. Utilizing a gain auto-tuning approach, the controller ensures convergence of the quadrotor trajectory to a predefined reference path, effectively managing both the position and orientation of the vehicle under quaternion dynamics. The control design integrates a direct barrier dead-zone controlled Lyapunov function, explicitly considering state restrictions. This function validates convergence to the reference path and derives the necessary state-dependent gains for the adaptive controller. Numerical evaluations demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed adaptive controller in achieving superior tracking performance compared to conventional state feedback controllers. Furthermore, the controller ensures compliance with full-state constraints, offering a promising solution for real-world applications. Experimental validation in a setup with predefined state restrictions further confirms the effectiveness of the proposed approach, exhibiting improved tracking characteristics over the proprietary controller installed in the quadrotor.