Robust landing and sliding maneuver hybrid controller for a quadrotor vehicle

This paper addresses the design and experimental evaluation of a robust controller for a quadrotor landing maneuver comprising the approach to a landing slope and sliding on that slope, before coming to a complete halt. During the critical landing flight phase, the dynamics of the vehicle change with the type of contact with the ground, and a hybrid automaton, whose states reflect the several dynamic behaviors of the quadrotor, is employed to model the vehicle throughout the complete maneuver. The quadrotor landing problem is broken down as separate maneuver generation and robust trajectory tracking problems, which are combined to achieve a successful maneuver that is robust to possible uncertainties. The experimental results are provided to attest to the feasibility of the proposed landing procedure.