  This paper proposes an adaptive tracking strategy with mass-inertia
estimation for aerial transportation problems of multi-rotor UAVs. The dynamic
model of multi-rotor UAVs with disturbances is firstly developed with a
linearly parameterized form. Subsequently, a cascade controller with the robust
integral of the sign of the error (RISE) terms is applied to smooth the control
inputs and address bounded disturbances. Then, adaptive estimation laws for
mass-inertia parameters are designed based on a filter operation. Such
operation is introduced to extract estimation errors exploited to theoretically
guarantee the finite-time (FT) convergence of estimation errors. Finally,
simulations are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the designed
controller. The results show that the proposed method provides better tracking
and estimation performance than traditional adaptive controllers based on
sliding mode control algorithms and gradient-based estimation strategies.
