The primary goal of this Simulink toolbox is proving users with a working example of how to control an AR Drone Parrot 2.0 using Matlab 2015a and a Vicon system for motion capture. This software has been developed at the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering of the University of Oklahoma as a test case for the ‘Advanced Control Systems Lab.’ A unique feature of this toolbox is that it can be seamlessly connected to ‘Vicon Tracker’ and import data concerning the vehicle’s position and attitude. Moreover, this toolbox accounts for the drone’s nonlinear kinematic equations, and provides a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control architecture.
Results achieved by using this toolbox are so encouraging, that the authors decided to share them with the Mathworks community. However, more advanced versions of this toolbox are being developed at the Advanced Control Systems Lab of the University of Oklahoma, and soon will be distributed on the file exchange of Matlab Central. These versions account for the full set of the quadrotor’s nonlinear equations of motion, allow controlling the propellers’ velocity directly, and apply nonlinear control techniques, such as sliding mode control and adaptive control with time delay.
In this package, we provide a brief users' manual, where we discuss the main purpose for each of the blocks forming this toolbox. Moreover, we provide brief discussions on how these blocks operate. Lastly, we explain in detail how to connect Simulink to ‘Vicon Tracker.’ For further details, please contact us at a.lafflitto@ou.edu.