Fuzzy Logic Controller for Force Feedback Control of Quadcopter via Tether

Abstract Tethered drone systems can be used to perform long-endurance tasks such as area surveillance and relay stations for wireless communication. However, all the existing systems use tethers only for data and power transmission from a stationary point on the ground. This work presents a control strategy that enables a quadcopter to follow a moving tether anchor. A force feedback controller is implemented using Fuzzy Logic. Using force-based strategy provides effective compliance between the tether’s anchor and the drone. The drone can thus be controlled by mere physical movement/manipulation of tether. This enhances the safety of current tethered drone systems and simplifies the flying of drones. Fuzzy Logic provides an intuitive edge to the control of such systems and allows handling noise in force sensors. Extensive simulation results are presented in this paper showing the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.