Performance Evaluation of Control Strategies for Autonomous Quadrotors: A Review

Abstract

The recent progress in the fields of sensor miniaturization, light materials, automatic control, and battery management systems has opened up new opportunities for low‐cost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), such as quadrotors. In fact, quadrotors have transitioned from a primarily military application to being widely used almost everywhere. Evidently, controlling such robots requires a deep understanding of their dynamic behavior and the use of robust strategies to accomplish the flight missions without compromising users’ safety. This study presents a comprehensive survey of control strategies for unmanned quadrotors. In our examination, the performance assessment of widely used control algorithms is discussed. Furthermore, the concept of model‐based design is presented as a solution for bridging the gap between simulation and experimental validation of control systems. It is anticipated that the present study will provide the reader with a clear vision of quadrotor UAV control theory.