Finite-time fault-tolerant control of attitude control system of quadrotor UAV based on neural network disturbance observer

This paper investigates a new finite-time fault-tolerant control scheme for a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Firstly, a novel neural network disturbance observer with an auxiliary system is designed to compensate for actuator faults and external disturbances. In addition, in order to ensure the system’s rapidity, the finite-time theory is incorporated into the observer design and the controller design. The hyperbolic tangent function is also introduced to process the input signals, which ensures that the UAV receives relatively the smooth input signals. The design scheme takes into account the rapidity and robustness of the system, which makes the performance of the UAV better. Finally, the advantages of the proposed scheme are demonstrated through comparative experiments and the feasibility of the scheme is further verified through actual physical experiments. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2025.