Adaptive Fault Tolerant Control Design for Actuator Fault Mitigation in Quadrotor UAVs

Abstract

This paper deals with the design and analysis of an adaptive fault tolerant control approach for a quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) subject to Loss of Actuator Effectiveness (LOE) faults. The FTC approach is based on a Super-Twisting (STW) algorithm with an Integral Terminal sliding mode controller. The controller’s parameters were dynamically adapted to ensure proper handling of unmatched perturbations and fault uncertainties. Simulation results were carried out to highlight the controller’s ability to mitigate actuator faults without compromising system’s performance. Excellent tracking performance and strong chattering attenuation are among the key features of the proposed design.