An L1 Adaptive Roll and Pitch Angle Controller for Quadrotors

The flight performance and control response of quadrotors is much affected by their design and flight conditions. In this paper, an L-1 adaptive controller is proposed for controlling quadrotor roll and pitch angles. A PID-style baseline controller is first designed, in which the desired attitude angles are converted to individual target angular rates, which are then tracked by the quadrotor. An L-1 adaptive controller is then designed to augment the roll and pitch angular rate inner control loop, so as to compensate for uncertainties in aircraft design, implementation, and flight conditions. Finally, the ability of the L-1 adaptive controller to sustain control performance under different conditions is verified via simulation and flight tests.