Coordinated Incremental Trajectory Tracking of a Tailsitter Drone

Abstract

This paper derives an analytical differential flatness transform for a tailsitter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) under coordinated flight conditions using a simplified aerodynamic model. The proposed framework is formulated exclusively using rotation matrices, avoiding the ambiguities inherent to Euler angle representations. The method extends the applicability of an existing state-of-the-art differential flatness-based controller to flight regimes involving a significant vertical velocity component, where the previous approach becomes inapplicable. The proposed framework is validated experimentally with trajectories that highlight its advantages in these regimes.