A Review of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Control Technology: Methods, Applications and Development Trends

The basic technology that has seen great advancement in the last decade for enabling the functioning of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is the UAV control systems. However, more complex mission requirements have revealed vulnerabilities related to complex flight environments, dynamic missions as well as the intrinsic nonlinearity and uncertainty of contemporary UAV control systems. Major research contributions and trends that have evolved over the past decade in UAV control are reviewed here. We first briefly, yet comprehensively, enumerate and describe core algorithms which include PID, LQR, sliding mode control, feedback linearization, robust control along with a wide range of intelligent and adaptive controls. This will be followed by an in-depth discussion comparing theoretical principles, their performance as well as applicable scenarios and challenges concerning effectivity of diverse controlling strategies under simulation versus real flight situations. Finally, we will identify key technical drawbacks and propose future research priorities and development trends, aiming to provide a clear and comprehensive reference.