Fault tolerant control for modified quadrotor via adaptive type-2 fuzzy backstepping subject to actuator faults

In this paper, a robust attitude and position control of a novel modified quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) which has higher drive capability as well as greater robustness against actuator faults than conventional quad-rotor UAV has been developed. A robust backstepping controller with adaptive interval type-2 fuzzy logic is proposed to control the attitude and position of the modified quadrotor under actuator faults. Besides globally stabilizing the system amid other disturbances, the insensitivity to the model errors and parametric uncertainties are the asset of the backstepping approach. The adaptive interval type-2 fuzzy logic as fault observer can effectively estimate the lumped faults without the knowledge of their bounds for the modified quadrotor UAV. Additionally, the type-2 fuzzy systems are utilized to approximate the local nonlinearities of each subsystem under actuator faults, next and in order to achieve the expected tracking performance, we used Lyapunov theory stability and convergence analysis to online adjust adaptive laws. As a result, the uniformly ultimate stability of the modified quadrotor system is proved. Finally, the performances of the proposed control method are evaluated by simulation and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy for the modified quadrotor in vertical flights in presence of actuator faults. •A robust controller based on backstepping and type-2 fuzzy logic are designed.•Modeling the new modified quadrotor aircraft in healthy and faulty operation.•Proof of stability using Lyapunov theory are given.•Comparative study with other techniques proposed in literature.