Nonlinear Adaptive Fault-Tolerant Quadrotor Altitude and Attitude Tracking With Multiple Actuator Faults

This brief presents the design, analysis, and implementation of a nonlinear robust adaptive fault-tolerant altitude and attitude tracking method for accommodating actuator faults in quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles without the need of a fault diagnosis mechanism. Actuator faults are modeled as a constant loss of effectiveness in the thrust generated by the rotors. The fault-tolerant control (FTC) algorithm guarantees asymptotic convergence of the altitude and attitude tracking error even in the presence of possible multiple actuator faults and modeling uncertainties. The FTC method is implemented using a real-time indoor quadrotor test environment. Experimental results are shown to illustrate the effectiveness of the algorithm.