Aerial robots are required to remain operational even in the event of system disturbances, damages, or failures to ensure resilient and robust task completion and safety. One common failure case is propeller damage, which presents a significant challenge in both quantification and compensation. We propose a novel adaptive control scheme capable of detecting and compensating for multi-rotor propeller damages, ensuring safe and robust flight performances. Our control scheme includes an L1 adaptive controller for damage inference and compensation of single or dual propellers, with the capability to seamlessly transition to a fault-tolerant solution in case the damage becomes severe. We experimentally identify the conditions under which the L1 adaptive solution remains preferable over a fault-tolerant alternative. Experimental results validate the proposed approach, demonstrating its effectiveness in running the adaptive strategy in real time on a quadrotor even in case of damage to multiple propellers.

翻译：空中机器人即使在系统扰动、损伤或故障的情况下也需保持运行能力，以确保任务完成的韧性和鲁棒性及安全性。螺旋桨损伤是常见故障类型之一，在量化评估与补偿方面均构成重大挑战。我们提出一种新型自适应控制方案，能够检测并补偿多旋翼螺旋桨损伤，确保安全鲁棒的飞行性能。该控制方案包含一个L1自适应控制器，用于单/双螺旋桨的损伤推断与补偿，同时具备在损伤加剧时无缝切换至容错解决方案的能力。我们通过实验确定了L1自适应方案相对于容错替代方案仍具优势的工况条件。实验结果验证了所提方法的有效性，证明即便在多螺旋桨受损的情况下，该自适应策略也能在四旋翼飞行器上实现实时稳定运行。