The main objective of this thesis is to design a linear waypoint following controller to achieve both control objectives, stabilization of the unstable body and waypoint following, at the same time. And it is compared with a nonlinear second-order sliding mode controller which was developed by ourselves in the past. The Euler-Lagrange method is used to derive the dynamic model of the system. After that, the system model is used for designing both waypoint following controller and second-order sliding mode controller. Finally, the control system is validated through simulation and experiment studies. In experiments, an indoor GPS module is used to obtain the real-time position of the system. Both controllers are implemented through a digital signal processor. The experimental results shows that the performance of waypoint following controller is better than second-order sliding mode controller in waypoint following control.
