Haomiao Huang

Bio: Haomiao Huang is an academic researcher from Stanford University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Motion planning & Hybrid system. The author has an hindex of 17, co-authored 23 publications receiving 2647 citations.

Quadrotor Helicopter Flight Dynamics and Control: Theory and Experiment

Abstract: Quadrotor helicopters are emerging as a popular platform for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) research, due to the simplicity of their construction and maintenance, their ability to hover, and their vertical take o and landing (VTOL) capability. Current designs have often considered only nominal operating conditions for vehicle control design. This work seeks to address issues that arise when deviating significantly from the hover flight regime. Aided by well established research for helicopter flight control, three separate aerodynamic eects are investigated as they pertain to quadrotor flight, due to vehicular velocity, angle of attack, and airframe design. They cause moments that aect attitude control, and thrust variation that aects altitude control. Where possible, a theoretical development is first presented, and is then validated through both thrust test stand measurements and vehicle flight tests using the Stanford Testbed of Autonomous Rotorcraft for Multi-Agent Control (STARMAC) quadrotor helicopter. The results enabled improved controller performance.

Aerodynamics and control of autonomous quadrotor helicopters in aggressive maneuvering

Abstract: Quadrotor helicopters have become increasingly important in recent years as platforms for both research and commercial unmanned aerial vehicle applications. This paper extends previous work on several important aerodynamic effects impacting quadrotor flight in regimes beyond nominal hover conditions. The implications of these effects on quadrotor performance are investigated and control techniques are presented that compensate for them accordingly. The analysis and control systems are validated on the Stanford Testbed of Autonomous Rotorcraft for Multi-Agent Control quadrotor helicopter testbed by performing the quadrotor equivalent of the stall turn aerobatic maneuver. Flight results demonstrate the accuracy of the aerodynamic models and improved control performance with the proposed control schemes.

Applications of hybrid reachability analysis to robotic aerial vehicles

Abstract: The control of complex non-linear systems can be aided by modeling each system as a collection of simplified hybrid modes, with each mode representing a particular operating regime defined by the system dynamics or by a region of the state space in which the system operates. Guarantees on the safety and performance of such hybrid systems can still be challenging to generate, however. Reachability analysis using a dynamic game formulation with Hamilton—Jacobi methods provides a useful way to generate these types of guarantees, and the technique is flexible enough to analyze a wide variety of systems. This paper presents two applications of reachable sets, both focused on guaranteeing the safety and performance of robotic aerial vehicles. In the first example, reachable sets are used to design and implement a backflip maneuver for a quadrotor helicopter. In the second, reachability analysis is used to design a decentralized collision avoidance algorithm for multiple quadrotors. The theory for both examples is explained, and successful experimental results are presented from flight tests on the STARMAC quadrotor helicopter platform.

Design of guaranteed safe maneuvers using reachable sets: Autonomous quadrotor aerobatics in theory and practice

Abstract: For many applications, the control of a complex nonlinear system can be made easier by modeling the system as a collection of simplified hybrid modes, each representing a particular operating regime. An example of this is the decomposition of complex aerobatic flights into sequences of discrete maneuvers, an approach that has proven very successful for both human piloted and autonomously controlled aircraft. However, a critical step when designing such control systems is to ensure the safety and feasibility of transitions between these maneuvers. This work presents a hybrid dynamics framework for the design of guaranteed safe switching regions and is applied to a quadrotor helicopter performing an autonomous backflip. The regions are constructed using reachable sets calculated via a Hamilton-Jacobi differential game formulation, and experimental results are presented from flight tests on the STARMAC quadrotor platform.

Coverage control for mobile sensing networks

Abstract: This paper presents control and coordination algorithms for groups of vehicles. The focus is on autonomous vehicle networks performing distributed sensing tasks where each vehicle plays the role of a mobile tunable sensor. The paper proposes gradient descent algorithms for a class of utility functions which encode optimal coverage and sensing policies. The resulting closed-loop behavior is adaptive, distributed, asynchronous, and verifiably correct.

Minimum snap trajectory generation and control for quadrotors

Abstract: We address the controller design and the trajectory generation for a quadrotor maneuvering in three dimensions in a tightly constrained setting typical of indoor environments. In such settings, it is necessary to allow for significant excursions of the attitude from the hover state and small angle approximations cannot be justified for the roll and pitch. We develop an algorithm that enables the real-time generation of optimal trajectories through a sequence of 3-D positions and yaw angles, while ensuring safe passage through specified corridors and satisfying constraints on velocities, accelerations and inputs. A nonlinear controller ensures the faithful tracking of these trajectories. Experimental results illustrate the application of the method to fast motion (5–10 body lengths/second) in three-dimensional slalom courses.

Multirotor Aerial Vehicles: Modeling, Estimation, and Control of Quadrotor

Abstract: This article provides a tutorial introduction to modeling, estimation, and control for multirotor aerial vehicles that includes the common four-rotor or quadrotor case.

Trajectory generation and control for precise aggressive maneuvers with quadrotors

Abstract: We study the problem of designing dynamically feasible trajectories and controllers that drive a quadrotor to a desired state in state space. We focus on the development of a family of trajectories defined as a sequence of segments, each with a controller parameterized by a goal state or region in state space. Each controller is developed from the dynamic model of the robot and then iteratively refined through successive experimental trials in an automated fashion to account for errors in the dynamic model and noise in the actuators and sensors. We show that this approach permits the development of trajectories and controllers enabling such aggressive maneuvers as flying through narrow, vertical gaps and perching on inverted surfaces with high precision and repeatability.

Geometric tracking control of a quadrotor UAV on SE(3)

Abstract: This paper provides new results for the tracking control of a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The UAV has four input degrees of freedom, namely the magnitudes of the four rotor thrusts, that are used to control the six translational and rotational degrees of freedom, and to achieve asymptotic tracking of four outputs, namely, three position variables for the vehicle center of mass and the direction of one vehicle body-fixed axis. A globally defined model of the quadrotor UAV rigid body dynamics is introduced as a basis for the analysis. A nonlinear tracking controller is developed on the special Euclidean group SE(3) and it is shown to have desirable closed loop properties that are almost global. Several numerical examples, including an example in which the quadrotor recovers from being initially upside down, illustrate the versatility of the controller.