Fail-safe Flight of a Fully-Actuated Quadcopter in a Single Motor Failure

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce a new quadcopter fail-safe flight solution that can perform the same four controllable degrees-of-freedom flight as a regular multirotor even when a single thruster fails. The new solution employs a novel multirotor platform known as the T3-Multirotor and utilizes a distinctive strategy of actively controlling the center of gravity position to restore the nominal flight performance. A dedicated control structure is introduced, along with a detailed analysis of the dynamic characteristics of the platform that change during emergency flights. Experimental results are provided to validate the feasibility of the proposed fail-safe flight strategy.