Adaptive Outer-Loop Control of Quadrotors via Reinforcement Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Saj, Vishnu, Vemuri, Sushil, Kalathil, Dileep, Benedict, Moble
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Saj, Vishnu
Vemuri, Sushil
Kalathil, Dileep
Benedict, Moble
author_facet Saj, Vishnu
Vemuri, Sushil
Kalathil, Dileep
Benedict, Moble
contents Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) for quadrotor flight control typically relies on Domain Randomization (DR) for sim-to-real transfer, resulting in overly conservative policies that struggle with dynamic disturbances. To overcome this, we propose a novel adaptive control architecture that actively perceives and reacts to instantaneous perturbations. First, we train an optimal outer-loop policy, then replace its reliance on ground-truth disturbance data with a Residual Dynamics Predictor (RDP). The RDP estimates the external forces and moments acting on the aircraft in flight online using only the history of states and control actions. For seamless hardware transfer, we introduce a data-efficient linear calibration bridge and an online thrust correction mechanism that align the simulated latent space with reality using mere seconds of flight data. Real-world validations on a Crazyflie micro-quadrotor demonstrate that our adaptive controller significantly outperforms baselines, maintaining precise trajectory tracking under severe uncertainties including mass variations, asymmetric payloads, and dynamic slung loads
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_16015
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Adaptive Outer-Loop Control of Quadrotors via Reinforcement Learning
Saj, Vishnu
Vemuri, Sushil
Kalathil, Dileep
Benedict, Moble
Robotics
Machine Learning
Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) for quadrotor flight control typically relies on Domain Randomization (DR) for sim-to-real transfer, resulting in overly conservative policies that struggle with dynamic disturbances. To overcome this, we propose a novel adaptive control architecture that actively perceives and reacts to instantaneous perturbations. First, we train an optimal outer-loop policy, then replace its reliance on ground-truth disturbance data with a Residual Dynamics Predictor (RDP). The RDP estimates the external forces and moments acting on the aircraft in flight online using only the history of states and control actions. For seamless hardware transfer, we introduce a data-efficient linear calibration bridge and an online thrust correction mechanism that align the simulated latent space with reality using mere seconds of flight data. Real-world validations on a Crazyflie micro-quadrotor demonstrate that our adaptive controller significantly outperforms baselines, maintaining precise trajectory tracking under severe uncertainties including mass variations, asymmetric payloads, and dynamic slung loads
title Adaptive Outer-Loop Control of Quadrotors via Reinforcement Learning
topic Robotics
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.16015