SUMMARY
A longitudinal attitude decoupling algorithm based on the fuzzy sliding mode control for a small coaxial rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is presented in this paper. The attitude system of a small coaxial rotor UAV is characterized by nonlinearity, strong coupling and uncertainty, which causes difficulties pertaining to its flight control. According to its six-degree-of-freedom model and structural characteristics, the dynamic model was established, and a longitudinal attitude decoupling algorithm was proposed. A fuzzy sliding mode control was used to design the controller to adapt to the underactuated system. Compared with the uncoupled fuzzy sliding mode control, simulation results indicated that the proposed method could improve the stability of the system, presented with a better adapting ability, and could effectively suppress the modeling error and external interference of the coaxial rotor aircraft attitude system. The proposed method also has the advantages of high accuracy, good stability, and the ease of implementation.