Design and Implementation of Enhanced Model Reference Adaptive Controllers (EMRAC) for Quadcopters Trajectory Tracking via HIL on Pixhawk 6x

Design and Implementation of Enhanced Model Reference Adaptive Controllers (EMRAC) for Quadcopters Trajectory Tracking via HIL on Pixhawk 6x: The main objective of this Master's thesis is to develop a comprehensive platform for testing and deploying custom controllers for quadrotor drones for trajectory tracking and deploy and test different version of EMRAC controllers on an actual flight control board. The toolchain is capable of evaluating advanced control algorithms on real hardware using Software-in-the-Loop (SITL) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulations. The thesis utilizes the PX4-Autopilot firmware, an open-source software designed for autonomous aerial vehicles. The implemented advanced control algorithm, EMRAC (Enhanced Model Reference Adaptive Controller), builds upon the MRAC (Model Reference Adaptive Controller) to enhance performance. To benchmark EMRAC's effectiveness, PD and MRAC controllers were designed. These control algorithms were developed using MATLAB/Simulink, facilitated by the PX4 toolbox (UAV Toolbox Support Package for PX4 Autopilots). This toolchain allows testing controllers in a simulation environment (e.g. jMAVSim) while also generating deployable code. The generated code can be executed on a generic computer (SITL) or deployed on a real Pixhawk 6x flight controller (HIL). The algorithms were also tested by increasing the mass and inertia of the quadrotor to demonstrate the EMRAC's potential to operate effectively under non-nominal conditions.