# Adversarial Reinforcement Learning for Robust Control of Fixed-Wing Aircraft under Model Uncertainty

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.16650 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.16650/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in RL for robot navigation and UAV control, one of 15 directions in Deep reinforcement learning methods.
- Builds on 15 of its 35 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 18 Oct 2025.

## Placed in

- Deep reinforcement learning methods / [RL for robot navigation and UAV control](https://mlsanity.com/deeprl/rl-for-robot-navigation-and-uav-control/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 15 of 15)

- [PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Library](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01703/) (2019)
- [Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06347/) (2017)
- [Trust Region Policy Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1502.05477/) (2015)
- [Domain Randomization for Transferring Deep Neural Networks from Simulation to the Real World](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.06907/) (2017)
- [Robust Adversarial Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.02702/) (2017)
- [Adversarial Attacks on Neural Network Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.02284/) (2017)
- [Tactics of Adversarial Attack on Deep Reinforcement Learning Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.06748/) (2017)
- [Robust Deep Reinforcement Learning with Adversarial Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.03632/) (2017)
- [Control of a Quadrotor with Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.05110/) (2017)
- [Reinforcement Learning for UAV Attitude Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.04154/) (2018)
- [A Benchmark Comparison of Learned Control Policies for Agile Quadrotor Flight](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.10796/) (2022)
- [Machine Learning-Aided Operations and Communications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: A Contemporary Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.04324/) (2022)
- [Deep Reinforcement Learning Attitude Control of Fixed-Wing UAVs Using Proximal Policy Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.05478/) (2019)
- [Data-Efficient Deep Reinforcement Learning for Attitude Control of Fixed-Wing UAVs: Field Experiments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.04153/) (2021)
- [Deep Reinforcement Learning for Trajectory Path Planning and Distributed Inference in Resource-Constrained UAV Swarms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.11201/) (2022)

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

- [Quadratic Characterizations for Reachability Analysis of Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.20482/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper presents a reinforcement learning-based path-following controller for a fixed-wing small uncrewed aircraft system (sUAS) that is robust to uncertainties in the aerodynamic model of the sUAS. The controller is trained using the Robust Adversarial Reinforcement Learning framework, where an adversary perturbs the environment (aerodynamic model) to expose the agent (sUAS) to demanding scenarios. In our formulation, the adversary introduces rate-bounded perturbations to the aerodynamic model coefficients. We demonstrate that adversarial training improves robustness compared to controllers trained using stochastic model uncertainty. The learned controller is also benchmarked against a switched uncertain initial condition controller. The effectiveness of the approach is validated through high-fidelity simulations using a realistic six-degree-of-freedom fixed-wing aircraft model, showing accurate and robust path-following performance under a variety of uncertain aerodynamic conditions.