Adaptive Backstepping Control of a Bicopter in Pure Feedback Form with Dynamic Extension

Abstract: This paper presents a model-based, adaptive, nonlinear controller for the bicopter stabilization and trajectory-tracking problem. The nonlinear controller is designed using the backstepping technique. Due to the non-invertibility of the input map, the bicopter system is first dynamically extended. However, the resulting dynamically extended system is in the pure feedback form with the uncertainty appearing in the input map. The adaptive backstepping technique is then extended and applied to design the controller. The proposed controller is validated in simulation for a smooth and nonsmooth trajectory-tracking problem.