Projection Operator-Based Fault-Tolerant Backstepping Adaptive Control of Fixed-Wing UAV Against Actuator Faults

Aiming at solving the problem of the loss of actuator effectiveness, a fault-tolerant backstepping control method for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the attitude dynamic model of fixed-wing UAV and the actuator fault model are introduced. Secondly, based on projection operator, adaptive law is considered to estimate the bounded control effectiveness. Then, by using Lyapunov stability analysis, the fixed-wing UAV is able to track the expected targets even when the actuator becomes faulty. Finally, the effectiveness of the designed controller is verified by simulation results.