Performance Evaluation of Control Strategies for Autonomous Quadrotors: A Review

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.