Active fault-tolerant control scheme of aerial manipulators with actuator faults

In this paper, an active fault-tolerant control (FTC) strategy of aerial manipulators based on non-singular terminal sliding mode (NTSM) and extended state observer (ESO) is proposed. Firstly, back-stepping technology is adopted as the control framework to ensure the global asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system. Next, the NTSM with estimated parameters of actuator faults is used as main robustness controller to deal with actuator faults. Then, the ESO is utilized to estimate and compensate the complex coupling effects and external disturbances. The Lyapunov stability theory can guarantee the asymptotic stability of aerial manipulators system with actuator faults and external disturbances. The proposed FTC scheme considers both actuator fault and modelling errors, combined with the adaptive law of actuator fault, which has better performance than traditional FTC scheme, such as NTSM. Finally, several comparative simulations are conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed FTC scheme.