L1 Adaptive Control for Indoor Autonomous Vehicles: Design Process and Flight Testing

Adaptive control techniques have the potential to address many of the special performance and robustness requirements of flight control for unmanned aerial vehicles. L1 adaptive control offers potential benefits in terms of performance and robustness. An L1 adaptive output feedback control design process is presented here in which control parameters are systematically determined based on intuitive desired performance and robustness metrics set by the designer. Flight test results verify the process for an indoor autonomous quadrotor helicopter, demonstrating that designer specifications correspond to the expected physical responses. In flight tests comparing it with the baseline linear controller, the augmented adaptive system shows definite performance and robustness improvements confirming the potential of L1 adaptive control as a useful tool for autonomous aircraft.