In this paper, a reconfigurable control scheme for a generalized class of multicopters is presented to overcome single or multiple rotor failures. In a multicopter, the rotor failure heavily affects its dynamics and thus its controllability. Limited controllability leads to limited or no reconfigurability. \emph{ Available Control Authority Index} has been recently developed \cite{ Du2015} as a measure of controllability of multicopters. In this work, the notion of \emph{ Available Reduced-Control Authority Index} (ArCAI) is introduced, which shows that in some uncontrollable failures it is still possible to control reduced set of states. Based on this notion, a reconfigurable control scheme is presented, which comprises a \emph{ Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion} based baseline control law, a constrained control allocation scheme along with some modifications to incorporate reconfiguration, and a simplified fault detection and isolation technique. Simulation results for a commonly used configuration of Hexacopter are presented in the presence of single and multiple rotor failures.
Categories: eess.SY cs.SY