Multiple model L1 adaptive fault-tolerant control of small unmanned aerial vehicles

This paper presents a method for fault-tolerant control of small fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The proposed design is based on multiple-model L1 adaptive control. The controller is composed of a nominal reference model and a set of suboptimal reference models. The nominal model is the one with desired dynamics that are optimal regarding some specific criteria. In a suboptimal model the performance criteria are reduced, it is designed to ensure system robustness in the presence of critical failures. The controller was tested in simulations and it was shown that the multiple model L1 adaptive controller stabilizes the system in case of inversion of the control input, while the L1 adaptive controller with a single nominal model fails.