Adaptive fault-tolerant trajectory tracking and attitude control of a quadrotor UAV subject to actuator faults

In this paper, an adaptive sliding mode control strategy is proposed to achieve desired trajectory tracking and attitude control for a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle in the presence of actuator faults. Firstly, the nominal controller is constructed by using an integral sliding mode control method with a cascaded control structure. Then, to compensate for the adverse effect of actuator faults, an adaptive sliding mode control strategy is presented to maintain desired trajectory and attitude tracking performance. Finally, a series of simulation tests are carried out to verify the capabilities and effectiveness of the adaptive fault-tolerant control method. The comparative simulation results validate the benefits and effectiveness of the proposed adaptive fault-tolerant control strategy.