Title: Geometric tracking control of thrust vectoring UAVs,
Abstract: In this paper a geometric approach to the trajectory tracking control of
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with thrust vectoring capabilities is proposed. The
control design is suitable for aerial systems that allow to effectively
decouple position and orientation tracking tasks. The control problem is
developed within the framework of geometric control theory on the group of
rigid displacements SE(3), yielding a control law that is independent of any
parametrization of the configuration space. The proposed design works seamlessy
when the thrust vectoring capability is limited, by prioritizing position over
orientation tracking. A characterization of the region of attraction and of the
convergence properties is explicitly derived. Finally, a numerical example is
presented to test the proposed control law. The generality of the control
scheme can be exploited for a broad class of aerial vehicles.