Controllability Analysis for Multirotor Helicopter Rotor Degradation and Failure

摘要

This paper considers the controllability analysis problem for a class ofmultirotor systems subject to rotor failure/wear. It is shown that classicalcontrollability theories of linear systems are not sufficient to test thecontrollability of the considered multirotors. Owing to this, an easy-to-usemeasurement index is introduced to assess the available control authority.Based on it, a new necessary and sufficient condition for the controllabilityof multirotors is derived. Furthermore, a controllability test procedure isapproached. The proposed controllability test method is applied to a class ofhexacopters with different rotor configurations and different rotor efficiencyparameters to show its effectiveness. The analysis results show thathexacopters with different rotor configurations have different fault-tolerantcapabilities. It is therefore necessary to test the controllability of themultirotors before any fault-tolerant control strategies are employed.