Adaptive Terminal Sliding Mode Control for a Quadrotor System with Barrier Function Switching Law

This study presents a novel finite-time robust control framework for quadrotor systems subjected to model uncertainties and unknown external disturbances. A fast terminal sliding mode (FTSM) manifold is first constructed to achieve finite-time convergence of tracking errors. To address the challenges posed by uncertain system dynamics, a radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) is integrated for real-time approximation of unknown nonlinearities. In addition, an adaptive gain regulation mechanism based on a barrier Lyapunov function (BLF) is developed to ensure boundedness of system trajectories while enhancing robustness without requiring prior knowledge of disturbance bounds. The proposed control scheme guarantees finite-time stability, strong robustness, and precise trajectory tracking. Numerical simulations substantiate the efficacy and superiority of the proposed method in comparison with existing control approaches.