An Actuator Fault Accommodation Sliding-Mode Control Approach for Trajectory Tracking in Quad-Rotors

In this paper, an actuator fault accommodation controller is developed to solve the trajectory tracking problem in Quad-Rotors under the effects of faults in multiple actuators and external disturbances. The faults are modeled as partial loss of effectiveness. The proposed fault accommodation approach is composed of a fault identification module and a baseline robust-nominal controller. The fault identification module is based on a finite-time sliding-mode observer that provides a set of residuals using only the output information. The fault accommodation strategy uses fault identification to partially compensate the actuator faults allowing the usage of a baseline robust-nominal controller that deals with the external disturbances. Numerical simulations show the performance of the proposed control strategy.