Fault tolerant control against actuator faults based on enhanced PID controller for a quadrotor

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present fault tolerant control of a quadrotor based on the enhanced proportional integral derivative (PID) structure in the presence of one or more actuator faults. Design/methodology/approach Mathematical model of the quadrotor is derived by parameter identification of the system for the simulation of the UAV dynamics and flight control in MATLAB/Simulink. An improved PID structure is used to provide the stability of the nonlinear quadcopter system both for attitude and path control of the system. The results of the healty system and the faulty system are given in simulations, together with motor dynamics. Findings In this study, actuator faults are considered to show that a robust controller design handles the loss of effectiveness in motors up to some extent. For the loss of control effectiveness of 20 per cent in first and third motors, psi state follows the reference with steady state error, and it does not go unstable. Motor 1 and Motor 3 respond to given motor fault quickly. When it comes to one actuator fault, steady state errors remain in some states, but the system does not become unstable. Originality/value In this paper, an enhanced PID controller is proposed to keep the quadrotor stable in case of actuator faults. Proposed method demonstrates the effectiveness of the control system against motor faults.