Attitude Synchronization For Multiple 3-DOF Helicopters With Actuator Faults

The attitude synchronization for multiple three-degree-of-freedom helicopters in the presence of system uncertainties and time-varying actuator faults is investigated. A fault-tolerant cooperative control algorithm based on robust adaptive control is proposed to synchronize attitudes of multiple helicopter systems in the case where some of the helicopters are subjected to both partial losses of control effectiveness and additive actuator faults. The proposed design is a distributed control method that allows each vehicle to track external reference signals merely in light of its neighborhood information. With the proposed design, time-varying actuator faults are tolerated without sacrificing the attitude synchronization performance. The effectiveness of the proposed control method is verified via a comparative experimental study.