@incollection{eprints432, pages = {14--19}, address = {16th Sep - 18th Sep 2009}, author = {Alberto Bemporad and Carlo A. Pascucci and Claudio Rocchi}, publisher = {IFAC}, year = {2009}, title = {Hierarchical and hybrid model predictive control of quadcopter air vehicles}, booktitle = {Analysis and Design of Hybrid Systems}, url = {http://eprints.imtlucca.it/432/}, abstract = {This paper proposes a hierachical hybrid MPC approach to design feedback control functions for stabilization and autonomous navigation of unmanned air vehicles. After formulating the nonlinear dynamical equations of a "quadcopter" air vehicle, a linear MPC controller is designed to stabilize the vehicle around commanded desired set-points. These are generated at a slower sampling rate by a hybrid MPC controller at the upper control layer, based on a hybrid dynamical model of the UAV and of its surrounding environment, with the overall goal of controlling the vehicle to a target set-point while avoiding obstacles. The performance of the complete hierarchical control scheme is assessed through simulations and visualization in a virtual 3D environment, showing the ability of linear MPC to handle the strong couplings among the dynamical variables of the quadcopter under various torque and angle/position constraints, and the flexibility of hybrid MPC in planning the desired trajectory on-line.}, keywords = {model predictive control; hierarchical control; mixed logical dynamical systems; unmanned air vehicles; obstacle avoidance} }