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：航空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，以确保任务完成的韧性与可靠性及安全性。一种常见的故障类型是螺旋桨损伤，这在量化与补偿方面带来了重大挑战。我们提出了一种新颖的自适应控制方案，能够检测并补偿多旋翼螺旋桨损伤，确保安全且稳健的飞行性能。我们的控制方案包含一个L1自适应控制器，用于推断和补偿单或双螺旋桨的损伤，并具备在损伤严重时无缝过渡到容错解决方案的能力。我们通过实验确定了L1自适应解决方案优于容错替代方案的条件。实验结果验证了所提方法的有效性，展示了其在四旋翼无人机上实时运行自适应策略的能力，即使在多个螺旋桨受损的情况下也是如此。