# Adaptive Digital PID Control of a Quadcopter with Unknown Dynamics

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.00416 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.00416/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 31 May 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Self-Tuning PID Control via a Hybrid Actor-Critic-Based Neural Structure for Quadcopter Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.01312/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper develops an adaptive autopilot for quadcopters with unknown dynamics. To do this, the PX4 autopilot architecture is modified so that the feedback and feedforward controllers are replaced by adaptive control laws based on retrospective cost adaptive control (RCAC). The present paper provides a numerical investigation of the performance of the adaptive autopilot on a quadcopter with unknown dynamics. In order to reflect the absence of prior modeling information, all of the adaptive digital controllers are initialized at zero gains. In addition, moment-of-inertia of the quadcopter is varied to test the robustness of the adaptive autopilot. In all test cases, the vehicle is commanded to follow a given trajectory, and the resulting performance is examined.