$\mathcal{L}_1$Quad: $\mathcal{L}_1$ Adaptive Augmentation of Geometric Control for Agile Quadrotors with Performance Guarantees

Abstract

Quadrotors that can operate safely in the presence of imperfect model knowledge and external disturbances are crucial in safety-critical applications. We present L1Quad, a control architecture for quadrotors based on the L1 adaptive control. L1Quad enables safe tubes centered around a desired trajectory that the quadrotor is always guaranteed to remain inside. Our design applies to both the rotational and the translational dynamics of the quadrotor. We lump various types of uncertainties and disturbances as unknown nonlinear (timeand state-dependent) forces and moments. Without assuming or enforcing parametric structures, L1Quad can accurately estimate and compensate for these unknown forces and moments. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that L1Quad is able to significantly outperform baseline controllers under a variety of uncertainties with consistently small tracking errors.