Research on Backstepping Trajectory Tracking Strategy of Quadrotor UAV Based on Prescribed Performance

LIAN Yize; ZHOU Chungui; GUO Junling; CAO Mengyang; ZHAO Heming

doi:10.7643/issn.1672-9242.2026.10.009

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Equipment Environmental Engineering ›› 2026, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (10) : 82-89. DOI: 10.7643/issn.1672-9242.2026.10.009

Aviation and Aerospace Equipment

Research on Backstepping Trajectory Tracking Strategy of Quadrotor UAV Based on Prescribed Performance

LIAN Yize¹, ZHOU Chungui^1,*, GUO Junling², CAO Mengyang¹, ZHAO Heming¹

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Abstract

Aiming at the problems of inaccurate trajectory tracking, large fluctuation of tracking errors and difficulty in quantitative constraint control of displacement tracking errors for quadrotor UAVs in complex flight environments, the work aims to propose an improved prescribed-performance function to constrain tracking errors within preset ranges with balanced environmental worthiness and control accuracy, with consideration to environmental disturbances such as wind turbulence and temperature fluctuations in practical flight. A controller was designed by combining prescribed-performance control with backstepping control to regulate error response time and steady-state error. Comparative simulations were conducted to verify the quantitative constraint effectiveness of the proposed method. The result showed that the modified method could effectively reduce tracking errors, with the average three-axis tracking error being 35.28% of backstepping control and 55.46% of sliding mode control within the first 2 s, which was 49.01% of the preset performance control at the specified time. Simulation results show that the presented algorithm can effectively realize quantitative constraint of tracking errors and maintain stable and robust flight under various environmental disturbances, optimizing the operational reliability of aviation UAV equipment.

Key words

quadrotor UAV / prescribed performance function / backstepping control / trajectory tracking / adaptive control

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LIAN Yize, ZHOU Chungui, GUO Junling, CAO Mengyang, ZHAO Heming. Research on Backstepping Trajectory Tracking Strategy of Quadrotor UAV Based on Prescribed Performance[J]. Equipment Environmental Engineering. 2026, 23(10): 82-89 https://doi.org/10.7643/issn.1672-9242.2026.10.009

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