Nonlinear disturbance observer-based geometric attitude fault-tolerant control of quadrotors

Abstract

This paper is concerned with nonlinear disturbance observer (DO)-based geometric attitude fault-tolerant control (FTC) problem of quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) subject to system uncertainties, exogenous disturbances, and actuator faults. A disturbance observer-based control (DOBC) framework is devised to tackle the difficulties caused by system uncertainties and external disturbances. The FTC is proposed to cope with the occurrence of actuator faults which can be modelled as a constant loss of effectiveness. The proposed design scheme can provide an effective way to analyse the stability of the closed-loop system, which can ensure the asymptotical convergence of the error. The other method considers actuator failures as part of the lumped disturbance, and the attitude tracking problem of quadrotors concerning the lumped disturbance is solved by the DO-based control method, which can ensure the exponential convergence of the error. The numerical simulations are performed to illustrate the effectiveness of the design techniques.

Keywords:

• Quadrotor UAVs
• nonlinear disturbance observer
• geometric method
• fault-tolerant control

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Scientific Instruments Development Program of NSFC [61527810]; the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities; and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant [62073189].