Adaptive fault‐tolerant attitude tracking control for spacecraft formation with unknown inertia

In this paper, an adaptive fault‐tolerant attitude coordinated tracking problem for spacecraft formation is investigated under a directed communication topology containing a spanning tree with the leader as the root, where inertia matrices and external disturbances are unknown time‐varying. With no prior knowledge of faults and inertia, an adaptive approach is proposed to reject the influence of disturbances and uncertainties. Meanwhile, combining with a consensus algorithm and graph theory, an adaptive fault‐tolerant attitude synchronization tracking control law is presented to regulate the attitude to a common time‐varying reference state. Aiming at optimizing the control law, a dynamic adjustment function is introduced to adjust the control gain according to the attitude tracking error. The effectiveness of the proposed control approach is demonstrated through simulation results.     

A new decentralized retrofit adaptive fault‐tolerant flight control design

In this paper, we develop a new decentralized retrofit adaptive fault‐tolerant control design for a class of nonlinear models arising in flight control. The proposed adaptive fault‐tolerant controller is designed to accommodate loss‐of‐effectiveness (LoE) failures in flight control actuators and achieve accurate estimation of failure‐related parameters. The design is based on local estimation of LoE parameters and generation of local retrofit control signals to accommodate the failures. Using state‐dependent closed‐loop estimation errors, we show the overall system to be stable and demonstrate the tracking error to converge to zero asymptotically for any combination of actuator failures. Through computer simulation of F/A‐18 aircraft under actuator LoE failures, the proposed approach is also shown to achieve better parameter estimation performance compared to the fully centralized design and the design employing local observers and a centralized adaptive controller. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparisons of adaptive fault‐tolerant insensitive control methods for a class of linear systems

In this paper, the problem of fault‐tolerant insensitive control is addressed for a class of linear time‐invariant continuous‐time systems against bounded time‐varying actuator faults and controller gain variations. Adaptive mechanisms are developed to adjust controller gains in order to compensate for the detrimental effects of partial loss of control effectiveness and bias‐actuator faults. Variations of controller gains arise from time‐varying and bounded perturbations that are supposed to always exist in adaptive mechanisms. Based on the disturbed outputs of adaptive mechanisms, three different adaptive control strategies are constructed to achieve bounded stability results of the closed‐loop adaptive fault‐tolerant control systems in the presence of actuator faults and controller gain variations. Furthermore, comparisons of convergence boundaries of states and limits of control inputs among adaptive strategies are developed in this paper. The efficiency of the proposed adaptive control strategies and their comparisons are demonstrated by a rocket fairing structural‐acoustic model.     

Active fault‐tolerant control for near space vehicles based on reference model adaptive sliding mode scheme

In this paper, an adaptive sliding mode (ASM) scheme is proposed for fault identification and fault‐tolerant control of near space vehicles (NSVs). First, the attitude dynamic model is introduced, and a baseline controller based on reference sliding mode scheme is designed in the case of no faults. Then fault parameterizations with actuator dynamics is presented for several classes of faults: lock‐in‐place, float, hard‐over, and loss of effectiveness. On the basis of adaptive observer design, fault parameters can be accurately estimated on‐line. Furthermore, an ASM fault‐tolerant controller is designed for both cases of actuator dynamic faults and control effector damage. Finally, simulation experiments show that the proposed ASM scheme is able to quickly and accurately identify faults and reconfigure the controller, resulting in excellent overall system performance. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

无角速度测量的姿态跟踪动态PD控制

针对太阳帆板展开过程中存在系统切换和外部未知干扰的航天器姿态跟踪控制问题,提出了角速度可测和角速度不可测的姿态跟踪自适应动态比例微分(PD)控制器。本文先设计自适应更新律补偿外部复合干扰,提出了姿态角及角速度全状态可测的自适应PD控制器;接着针对角速度不可量测,基于无源控制理论给出估算角速度的动态观测器,提出一种仅有姿态角跟踪误差信息的变增益动态PD控制器,并理论证明了闭环系统的全局渐近稳定性;数值仿真验证了变增益动态PD控制器对太阳帆板展开过程中,航天器的姿态跟踪控制的鲁棒性和有效性。     

Neural network‐based adaptive attitude tracking control for flexible spacecraft with unknown high‐frequency gain

Adaptive control design using neural networks (a) is investigated for attitude tracking and vibration stabilization of a flexible spacecraft, which is operated at highly nonlinear dynamic regimes. The spacecraft considered consists of a rigid body and two flexible appendages, and it is assumed that the system parameters are unknown and the truncated model of the spacecraft has finite but arbitrary dimension as well, for the purpose of design. Based on this nonlinear model, the derivation of an adaptive control law using neural networks (NNs) is treated, when the dynamics of unstructured and state‐dependent nonlinear function are completely unknown. A radial basis function network that is used here for synthesizing the controller and adaptive mechanisms is derived for adjusting the parameters of the network and estimating the unknown parameters. In this derivation, the Nussbaum gain technique is also employed to relax the sign assumption for the high‐frequency gain for the neural adaptive control. Moreover, systematic design procedure is developed for the synthesis of adaptive NN tracking control with L₂ ‐gain performance. The resulting closed‐loop system is proven to be globally stable by Lyapunov's theory and the effect of the external disturbances and elastic vibrations on the tracking error can be attenuated to the prescribed level by appropriately choosing the design parameters. Numerical simulations are performed to show that attitude tracking control and vibration suppression are accomplished in spite of the presence of disturbance torque/parameter uncertainty. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Accommodation of unknown actuator faults using output feedback‐based adaptive robust control

In this paper, we solve the problem of output tracking for linear uncertain systems in the presence of unknown actuator failures using discontinuous projection‐based output feedback adaptive robust control (ARC). The faulty actuators are characterized as unknown inputs stuck at unknown values experiencing bounded disturbance and actuators losing effectiveness at unknown instants of time. Many existing techniques to solve this problem use model reference adaptive control (MRAC), which may not be well suited for handling various disturbances and modeling errors inherent to any realistic system model. Robust control‐based fault‐tolerant schemes have guaranteed transient performance and are capable of dealing with modeling errors to certain degrees. But, the steady‐state tracking accuracy of robust controllers, e.g. sliding mode controller, is limited. In comparison, the backstepping‐based output feedback adaptive robust fault‐tolerant control (ARFTC) strategy presented here can effectively deal with such uncertainties and overcome the drawbacks of individual adaptive and robust controls. Comparative simulation studies are performed on a linearized Boeing 747 model, which shows the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive finite‐time formation tracking control for multiple nonholonomic UAV system with uncertainties and quantized input

An adaptive finite‐time formation tracking control approach is proposed for multiple unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system with quantized input signals in this paper. The UAVs are described by nonholonomic kinematic model and autopilot model with uncertainties. An enhanced hysteretic quantizer is introduced to avoid chattering, and some restrictions are released by using a new quantization decomposition method. Based on backstepping technique and finite‐time Lyapunov stability theory, the adaptive finite‐time controller is designed for the trajectory tracking of the multi‐UAV formation. The nonholonomic constraints are solved by a transverse function. A transformation is introduced to the control input signals to eliminate the quantization effect. Stability analysis proves that the tracking errors can converge to a small neighborhood of the origin within finite time and all the closed‐loop signals are semiglobally finite‐time bounded. The effectiveness of the proposed control approach is validated by simulation and experiment.     

Active fault‐tolerant attitude control for flexible spacecraft with loss of actuator effectiveness

A theoretical framework for active fault‐tolerant attitude stabilization control is developed and applied to flexible spacecraft. The proposed scheme solves a difficult problem of fault‐tolerant controller design in the presence of severe partial loss of actuator effectiveness faults and external disturbances. This is accomplished by developing an observer‐based fault detection and diagnosis mechanism to reconstruct the actuator faults. Accordingly, a backstepping‐based fault‐tolerant control law is reconfigured using the reconstructed fault information. It is shown that the proposed design approach guarantees that all of the signals of the closed‐loop system are uniformly ultimately bounded. The closed‐loop performance of the proposed control strategy is evaluated extensively through numerical simulations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fault‐tolerant control using command‐filtered adaptive back‐stepping technique: Application to hypersonic longitudinal flight dynamics

In this paper, the adaptive back‐stepping controller is investigated for a class of strict‐feedback systems using the command filter technique. Adaptive laws are designed for updating the controller parameters when both the plant parameters and actuator‐failure parameters are unknown. Furthermore, the auxiliary dynamics is developed to deal with the input constraints. Closed‐loop stability and asymptotic‐state tracking are ensured. The method is applied to the longitudinal dynamics of a generic hypersonic aircraft in the presence of actuator faults and input constraints. Based on the parameter estimation, the command‐filtered adaptive back‐stepping control is presented. Simulation results on the control‐oriented model show that the proposed approach achieves good tracking performance. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite‐time prescribed performance adaptive fuzzy fault‐tolerant control for nonstrict‐feedback nonlinear systems

This paper focuses on a finite‐time adaptive fuzzy control problem for nonstrict‐feedback nonlinear systems with actuator faults and prescribed performance. Compared with existing results, the finite‐time prescribed performance adaptive fuzzy output feedback control is under study for the first time. By designing performance function, the transient performance of the corresponding controlled variable is maintained in a prescribed area. Combining the finite‐time stability criterion with backstepping technique, a feasible adaptive fault‐tolerant control scheme is proposed to guarantee that the system output converges to a small neighborhood of the origin in finite time, and the closed‐loop signals are bounded. Finally, simulation results are shown to illustrate the effectiveness of the presented control method.     

LMI‐based adaptive output feedback fault‐tolerant controller design for nonlinear systems

This paper presents 2‐novel linear matrix inequality (LMI)‐based adaptive output feedback fault‐tolerant control strategies for the class of nonlinear Lipschitz systems in the presence of bounded matched or mismatched disturbances and simultaneous occurrence of actuator faults, including failure, loss of effectiveness, and stuck. The constructive algorithms based on LMI with creatively using Lyapunov stability theory and without the need for an explicit information about mode of actuator faults or fault detection and isolation mechanism are developed for online tuning of adaptive and fixed output‐feedback gains to stabilize the closed‐loop control system asymptotically. The proposed controllers guarantee to compensate actuator faults effects and to attenuate disturbance effects. The resulting control methods have simpler structure, as compared with most existing recent methods and more suitable for practical systems. The merits of the proposed fault‐tolerant control scheme have been verified by the simulation on nonlinear Boeing 747 lateral motion dynamic model subjected to actuator faults.     

Adaptive finite‐time control for high‐order nonlinear systems with mismatched disturbances

In this paper, adaptive finite‐time control is addressed for a class of high‐order nonlinear systems with mismatched disturbances. An adaptive finite‐time controller is designed in which variable gains are adjusted to ensure finite‐time stabilization for the closed‐loop system. Chattering is reduced by a designed adaptive sliding mode observer which is also used to deal with the mismatched disturbances in finite time. The proposed adaptive finite‐time control method avoids calculating derivative repeatedly of traditional backstepping methods and reduces computational burden effectively. Three numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Adaptive saturated finite‐time control algorithm for buck‐type DC‐DC converter systems

To enhance the convergent rate and robustness of buck‐type DC‐DC converter system, a new finite‐time voltage regulation control algorithm is proposed in this paper. First, an average state space‐based model is analyzed, which considers both the parameters uncertainties and the variations of load and input voltage. By using saturation finite‐time control theory, at the first step, in the absence of disturbance, a new fast voltage regulation control algorithm is designed, which can guarantee that the output voltage converges to the reference voltage in a finite time. Because the saturation constraint is considered during the controller design, the duty ratio function of the converter satisfies the constraint between 0 and 1. Second, in the presence of disturbance, a finite‐time convergent disturbance observer is designed to estimate the unknown disturbances in a finite time. Finally, a disturbance observer‐based finite‐time voltage regulation control algorithm is developed. Compared with PI (Proportional‐Integral) control algorithm, circuit simulations show that the proposed algorithm has a faster regulation performance and stronger robustness performance on disturbance rejection.     

Sensor fault diagnosis and fault‐tolerant control for stochastic distribution time‐delayed control systems

In this paper, a new fault diagnosis and fault‐tolerant control method based on the model equivalent transformation is proposed for the stochastic distribution time‐delayed control system, in which the random delay between the controller and the actuator and the external disturbance is considered. The system is modeled by using a linear B‐spline to approximate the probability density function (PDF) of system output. The original system is transformed into an equivalent system without random delay based on the Laplace transformation method. Then, the equivalent system that is converted to the augmentation system with a new state variable is introduced. The observer is designed to estimate the fault information based on the augmentation system. Observer gain matrices and controller parameters are obtained by solving the linear matrix inequality. The PI control algorithm is used to make the PDF of the system output track the desired distribution. Finally, the validity of the proposed method is verified by computer simulation results.     

Robust adaptive consensus tracking for higher‐order multi‐agent uncertain systems with nonlinear dynamics via distributed intermittent communication protocol

This paper considers the robust adaptive consensus tracking for higher‐order multi‐agent uncertain systems with nonlinear dynamics via distributed intermittent communication protocol. The main contribution of this work is solving the robust consensus tracking problem without the assumption that the topology among followers is strongly connected and fixed. The focus is the problem of actuator with occasional failure inputs and communication resources constraints. A novel distributed intermittent communication framework is proposed via adaptive approach. In this framework, the underlying communication topologies switch among several directed graphs with a limited directed spanning tree rooted at a leader agent. Furthermore, by introducing a strategy of actuator fault compensation inputs, a combination of robust consensus tracking protocol is designed by the different adaptive feedback controllers. It is proved that the robust adaptive consensus tracking can be achieved by using local states information of neighboring agents if the communication retention rate condition is satisfied. Two examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Model‐free fault‐tolerant control approach for uncertain state‐constrained linear systems with actuator faults

This paper investigates the robust adaptive fault‐tolerant control problem for state‐constrained continuous‐time linear systems with parameter uncertainties, external disturbances, and actuator faults including stuck, outage, and loss of effectiveness. It is assumed that the knowledge of the system matrices, as well as the upper bounds of the disturbances and faults, is unknown. By incorporating a barrier‐function like term into the Lyapunov function design, a novel model‐free fault‐tolerant control scheme is proposed in a parameter‐dependent form, and the state constraint requirements are guaranteed. The time‐varying parameters are adjusted online based on an adaptive method to prevent the states from violating the constraints and compensate automatically the uncertainties, disturbances, and actuator faults. The time‐invariant parameters solved by using data‐based policy iteration algorithm are introduced for helping to stabilize the system. Furthermore, it is shown that the states converge asymptotically to zero without transgression of the constraints and all signals in the resulting closed‐loop system are uniformly bounded. Finally, two simulation examples are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive neural control for nonstrict‐feedback stochastic nonlinear time‐delay systems with input and output constraints

This paper investigates an adaptive neural tracking control for a class of nonstrict‐feedback stochastic nonlinear time‐delay systems with input saturation and output constraint. First, the Gaussian error function is used to represent a continuous differentiable asymmetric saturation model. Second, the appropriate Lyapunov‐Krasovskii functional and the property of hyperbolic tangent functions are used to compensate the time‐delay effects, the neural network is used to approximate the unknown nonlinearities, and a barrier Lyapunov function is designed to ensure that the output parameters are restricted. At last, based on Lyapunov stability theory, a robust adaptive neural control method is proposed, and the designed controller decreases the number of learning parameters and thus reduces the computational burden. It is shown that the designed neural controller can ensure that all the signals in the closed‐loop system are 4‐Moment (or 2 Moment) semi‐globally uniformly ultimately bounded and the tracking error converges to a small neighborhood of the origin. Two examples are given to further verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Adaptive output feedback actuator failure compensation for a class of non‐linear systems

An adaptive compensation control scheme using output feedback is designed and analysed for a class of non‐linear systems with state‐dependent non‐linearities in the presence of unknown actuator failures. For a linearly parameterized model of actuator failures with unknown failure values, time instants and pattern, a robust backstepping‐based adaptive non‐linear controller is employed to handle the system failure, parameter and dynamics uncertainties. Robust adaptive parameter update laws are derived to ensure closed‐loop signal boundedness and small tracking errors, in general, and asymptotic regulation, in particular. An application to controlling the angle of attack of a non‐linear hypersonic aircraft dynamic model in the presence of elevator segment failures is studied and simulation results show that the developed adaptive control scheme has desired actuator failure compensation performance. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive control of discrete‐time nonlinear systems by recurrent neural networks in quasi‐sliding mode like regime

The aim of this study was to design an adaptive control strategy based on recurrent neural networks (RNNs). This neural network was designed to obtain a non‐parametric approximation (identification) of discrete‐time uncertain nonlinear systems. A discrete‐time Lyapunov candidate function was proposed to prove the convergence of the identification error. The adaptation laws to adjust the free parameters in the RNN were obtained in the same stability analysis. The control scheme used the states of the identifier, and it was developed fulfilling the necessary conditions to establish a behavior comparable with a quasi‐sliding mode regime. This controller does not use the regular form of the switching function that commonly appears in the sliding mode control designs. The Lyapunov candidate function to design the controller and the identifier simultaneously requires the existence of positive definite solutions of two different matrix inequalities. As consequence, a class of separation principle was proven when the RNN‐based identifier and the controller were designed by the same analysis. Simulations results were designed to show the behavior of the proposed controller solving the tracking problem for the trajectories of a direct current (DC) motor. The performance of the proposed controller was compared with the solution obtained when a classical proportional derivative controller and an adaptive first‐order sliding mode controller assuming poor knowledge of the plant. In both cases, the proposed controller showed superior performance when the relation between the tracking error convergence and the energy used to reach it was evaluated. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.