CONTROL OF QUADCOPTER ALTITUDE USING PID CONTROLLER

Abstract

A quadcopter is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of vertical take-off and landing. This study develops a nonlinear mathematical model describing the quadcopter’s system dynamics and implements a PID controller for altitude regulation, assuming roll, pitch, and yaw remain stable. The model is derived using Newton’s and Euler’s equations in the appropriate coordinate frame and simulated using MATLAB-Simulink. Simulation results demonstrate that the drone reaches the desired altitude with minimal overshoot, while vertical velocity and acceleration converge to zero at steady state, indicating stable hovering. Moreover, the controller effectively tracks time-varying reference altitudes, showing accurate and robust performance. These results confirm that the proposed PID control strategy achieves reliable and precise altitude regulation for quadcopter applications