The invention discloses a novel sliding-mode prediction fault-tolerant control algorithm for a discrete uncertain multi-time-lag four-rotor system under an actuator fault. For the fault-tolerant control problem of the discrete uncertain multi-time-lag four-rotor system under the condition that the actuator fault exists, firstly, a quasi-integral sliding mode surface is designed to serve as a prediction model to eliminate an approaching mode, so that the global robustness is guaranteed; secondly, aiming at the actuator fault and multiple time lags, an improved fault compensation double-power function reference track is designed, so that the influence of the time lags on the system is weakened, and the fault-tolerant control precision is improved; and thirdly, an improved inverse time limitcoyote optimization algorithm (ICOA) is designed for rolling optimization, so that while a good convergence rate is obtained, the situation that local extremum is caught in the optimization process isavoided, and the local development and global search performances are balanced. The fault-tolerant control algorithm is used for robust fault-tolerant control of the multi-time-lag discrete uncertainsystem with the actuator fault.