IJCAS

This paper develops a fault tolerant control (FTC) approach for quadrotor aerial vehicles under different types of actuator faults. An observer-based fault detection and diagnosis mechanism is devised to estimate the faults. A robust finite-time convergent controller which merges the features of Backstepping, and Integral Nonsingular Fast Terminal Sliding surface is proposed to ensure the finite time stability of the states in nominal conditions and their asymptotic stability in faulty conditions. A control redistribution method is formulated to maintain the quadrotor in flight, in the case of complete actuator failure and lock in place (LIP) faults. The proposed controller was assessed in the presence of loss of actuator effectiveness (LOE) faults, complete damage of one rotor and LIP faults. The obtained results confirmed the ability of the proposed approach to enable the quadrotor to track the commanded trajectory precisely under partial LOE faults and continue tracking with an expected performance degradation under the effect of complete motor failure and LIP faults.

Keywords: Control redistribution, fault tolerant control, LIP fault, quadrotor, rotor damage.