Sensor cascading fault estimation and control for hypersonic flight vehicles based on a multidimensional generalized observer

This study presents a sensor cascading fault estimation and fault‐tolerant control (FTC) for a nonlinear Takagi‐Sugeno fuzzy model of hypersonic flight vehicles. Sensor cascading faults indicate the occurrence of source fault will cause another fault and the interval between them is really short, which makes it difficult to handle them in succession. A novel multidimensional generalized observer is used to estimate faults by integrating constant offset and time‐varying gain faults. Then, a fault‐tolerant controller is used to solve system nonlinearity and sensor fault problems. The observer and controller satisfy the performance index and are robust to external disturbances. A sufficient condition for the existence of observer and controller is derived on the basis of Lyapunov theory. Simulation results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed fault estimation and FTC scheme.     

Continuous robust fault‐tolerant control and vibration suppression for flexible spacecraft without angular velocity

The fault‐tolerant control and vibration suppression for flexible spacecraft without angular velocity measurement are investigated. External disturbances, actuator faults, unknown angular velocity, and flexible vibration are addressed simultaneously. Firstly, a model‐free adaptive supertwisting state observer and an angular velocity calculation algorithm in one step are developed by using attitude information only, which can estimate the angular velocity in finite time. Then, on the basis of angular velocity estimation, a novel continuous multivariable integral sliding mode (CMISM) is proposed for the first time, which is a combination of continuous nominal controller and a modified multivariable twisting controller to reject disturbances and faults. The CMISM can stabilize attitudes in finite time and attenuate chattering effectively. Furthermore, the input shaping technique is developed to achieve effective vibration suppression of the flexible appendages. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed method is illustrated by numerical simulations.     

Adaptive disturbance observer‐based finite‐time continuous fault‐tolerant control for reentry RLV

The control effectors of reusable launch vehicle (RLV) can produce significant perturbations and faults in reentry phase. Such a challenge imposes tight requirements to enhance the robustness of vehicle autopilot. Focusing on this problem, a novel finite‐time fault‐tolerant control strategy is proposed for reentry RLV in this paper. The key of this strategy is to design an adaptive‐gain multivariable finite‐time disturbance observer (FDO) to estimate the synthetical perturbation with unknown bounds, which is composed of model uncertainty, external disturbance, and actuator fault considered as the partial loss of actuator effectiveness in this work. Then, combined with the finite‐time high‐order observer and differentiator, a continuous homogeneous second‐order sliding mode controller based on the terminal sliding mode and super‐twisting algorithm is designed to achieve a fast and accurate RLV attitude tracking with chattering attenuation. The main features of the integrated control strategy are that the adaptation algorithm of FDO can achieve non‐overestimating values of the observer gains and the second‐order super‐twisting sliding mode approach can obtain a more elegant solution in finite time. Finally, simulation results of classical RLV (X‐33) are provided to verify the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed fault‐tolerant controller in tracking the guidance commands. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fuzzy adaptive nonlinear sensor‐fault tolerant control for a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle

In this paper, a novel fuzzy adaptive nonlinear fault tolerant control design scheme is proposed for attitude dynamics of quadrotor UAV subjected to four sensor faults (bias, drift, loss of accuracy, loss of effectiveness). The sensor faults in Euler angle loop are transformed equivalently into a mismatched uncertainty vector, and other unknown items involving faults, uncertain parameters and external disturbances in angular velocity loop are lumped into an unknown nonlinear function vector. Fuzzy logic systems with adaptive parameters are used to approximate the mismatched uncertainty and lumped nonlinear function vectors. Dynamic surface control is applied to design the fault tolerant controller, and sliding mode control is introduced to improve the control accuracy. All signals of the closed‐loop control system are proved to be semi‐global uniformly ultimately bounded. Simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach for sensor faults.     

Finite‐time angular velocity observers for rigid‐body attitude tracking with bounded inputs

The attitude tracking of a rigid body without angular velocity measurements is addressed. A continuous angular velocity observer with fractional power functions is proposed to estimate the angular velocity via quaternion attitude information. The fractional power gains can be properly tuned according to a homogeneous method such that the estimation error system is uniformly almost globally finite‐time stable, irrespective of control inputs. To achieve output feedback attitude tracking control, a quaternion‐based nonlinear proportional‐derivative controller using full‐state feedback is designed first, yielding uniformly almost globally finite‐time stable of the attitude tracking system as well as bounded control torques a priori. It is then shown that the certainty equivalent combination of the observer and nonlinear proportional‐derivative controller ensures finite‐time convergence of the attitude tracking error for almost all initial conditions. The proposed methods not only avoid high‐gain injection, as opposed to the semi‐global results, but also overcome the unwinding problem associated with some quaternion‐based observers and/or controllers. Numerical simulations are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Novel MPC‐Based Fault Tolerant Tracking Control Against Sensor Faults

The problem of active fault‐tolerant tracking control with control input and system output constraints is studied for a class of discrete‐time systems subject to sensor faults. A time‐varying fault‐tolerant observer is first developed to estimate the real system state from the faulty sensor output and control input signals. Then by using the estimated state at each time step, a model predictive control (MPC)‐based fault‐tolerant tracking control scheme is presented to guarantee the desired tracking performance and the given input and output constraints on the faulty system. In comparison with many existing fault‐tolerant MPC methods, its main contribution is that the proposed state estimator is designed by the simple and online numerical computation to tolerate the possible sensor faults, so that the regular MPC algorithm without fault information can be adopted for the online calculation of fault‐tolerant control signal. The potential recursive infeasibility and computational complexity due to the faults are avoided in the scheme. Additionally, the closed‐loop stability of the post‐fault system is discussed. Simulative results of an electric throttle control system verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Elegant antidisturbance fault‐tolerant control for stochastic systems with multiple heterogeneous disturbances

In this article, the elegant antidisturbance fault‐tolerant control (EADFTC) problem is studied for a class of stochastic systems in the simultaneous presence of multiple heterogeneous disturbances and time‐varying faults. The multiple heterogeneous disturbances include white noise, norm bounded uncertain disturbances and uncertain modeled disturbances with multiple nonlinearities and unknown amplitudes, frequencies, and phases. The time‐varying fault signals are caused by lose efficacy of actuator. To online estimate uncertain modeled disturbances and time‐varying faults, a novel composite observer structure consisting of the adaptive nonlinear disturbance observer and the fault diagnosis observer is constructed. The novel EADFTC strategy is proposed by integrating composite observer structure with adaptive disturbance observer‐based control theory and H_∞ technology. It is proved that all the signals of closed‐loop system are asymptotically bounded in mean square under the circumstances of multiple heterogeneous disturbances and time‐varying faults occur simultaneously. Finally, the effectiveness and availability of proposed strategy are demonstrated by means of the numerical simulation and a doubly fed induction generators system simulation, respectively.     

Finite‐Time Fault‐Tolerant Control for a Class of Non‐Affine Nonlinear System Using Sliding Mode Disturbance Observer

This study investigates a finite‐time fault‐tolerant control scheme for a class of non‐affine nonlinear system with actuator faults and unknown disturbances. A global approximation method is applied to non‐affine nonlinear system to convert it into an affine‐like expression with accuracy. An adaptive terminal sliding mode disturbance observer is proposed to estimate unknown compound disturbances in finite time, including external disturbances and system uncertainties, which enhances system robustness. Controllers based on finite‐time Lyapunov theory are designed to force tracking errors to zero in finite time. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed method.     

Third‐order sliding mode fault‐tolerant control for satellites based on iterative learning observer

The attitude fault‐tolerant control problem for a satellite with reaction‐wheel failures, uncertainties, and unknown external disturbances is investigated in this paper. Firstly, an iterative learning observer (ILO) is proposed to achieve fault detection, isolation, and estimation. Secondly, based on the ILO, a third‐order sliding mode controller is proposed to stabilize the satellite attitude rapidly under unknown external disturbances and reaction‐wheel faults. Thirdly, the asymptotically stability of the ILO and the third‐order sliding mode controller is proved by using the Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, simulation results demonstrate that the proposed control scheme is more effective and feasible by comparing with other fault‐tolerant control approach.     

Distributed observer‐based leader‐follower attitude consensus control for multiple rigid bodies using rotation matrices

This paper addresses the distributed observer‐based leader‐follower attitude consensus control problem for multiple rigid bodies. An intrinsic distributed observer is proposed for each follower to estimate the leader's trajectory, which is only available to a subset of followers. The proposed observer can guarantee that the estimated attitude evolves on rotation matrices all the time, and it provides us with a simple way to design the attitude consensus control law. The dynamics of rigid bodies and distributed observer are both modeled directly on rotation matrices, so that the singularity and ambiguity can be avoided. Furthermore, adopting the idea of disturbance observer on vector space, a gyro bias observer on the rotation matrices is proposed. Based on the distributed observer, three types of attitude consensus control law are proposed, which are respectively on the basis of full‐state, biased angular velocity, and external disturbance combined with biased angular velocity. Finally, the SimMechanics experiments are provided to illustrate effectiveness of the proposed theoretical results.     

Discrete‐Time Super‐Twisting Guidance Law with Actuator Faults Consideration

This paper proposes a robust fault‐tolerant guidance law against unknown maneuvering targets based on discrete‐time sliding mode control theory. To address this problem, a time‐delay observer is designed to estimate the lumped disturbance, which includes target maneuver as well as actuator faults. A robust discrete‐time guidance law is then synthesized based on the discrete‐time super‐twisting algorithm. Due to the principle of the super‐twisting algorithm, the presented guidance law is a naturally chattering‐free formulation. Detailed stability analysis shows that the line‐of‐sight angular rate under the proposed guidance law can be stabilized in a small region around zero. Simulation results are also provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Nonlinear MPC for a Sensorless Multi‐Vectored Propeller Airship Based on Sliding Mode Observer with Saturation

A nonlinear fault tolerant station keeping controller for a multi‐vectored propeller airship without velocity and angular velocity sensors is developed, which is composed of three modules: nonlinear model predictive controller (NMPC), sliding mode observer (SMO), and linear programming (LP) based control allocation. The kinematics and dynamics model of the airship are introduced. Based on the nonlinear model, with the assumption that the velocity and angular velocity sensors are damaged, a sliding mode observer is designed to estimate the velocity and angular velocity of the airship. To achieve good performance in the station keeping mission, an explicit nonlinear model predictive control is derived. A linear programming base control allocation method is proposed to solve both amplitude and rate constraint of the propulsion forces and deflection angles. Stability analysis is carried out to prove that the system can be stabilized in finite time. Simulation results for the station keeping control are illustrated to prove the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Global decentralized sampled‐data output feedback stabilization for a class of large‐scale nonlinear systems with sensor and actuator failures

In this paper, we investigate global decentralized sampled‐data output feedback stabilization problem for a class of large‐scale nonlinear systems with time‐varying sensor and actuator failures. The considered systems include unknown time‐varying control coefficients and inherently nonlinear terms. Firstly, coordinate transformations are introduced with suitable scaling gains. Next, a reduced‐order observer is designed to estimate unmeasured states. Then, a decentralized sampled‐data fault‐tolerant control scheme is developed with an allowable sampling period. By constructing an appropriate Lyapunov function, it can be shown that all states of the resulting closed‐loop system are globally uniformly ultimately bounded. Finally, the validity of the proposed control approach is verified by using two examples.     

Velocity‐free attitude stabilization with inertial vector measurements

This paper deals with the attitude stabilization problem of a rigid body, where neither the angular velocity nor the attitude is used in the feedback; only body‐referenced vector measurements are needed. The proposed control scheme is based on an angular velocity observer‐like system relying solely on vector measurements. The proposed controller ensures almost global asymptotic stability and provides some interesting performance properties through an appropriate tuning of the control gains. The performance and effectiveness of the proposed control scheme are illustrated via simulation results where the control gains are adjusted using a nonlinear optimization. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive fixed‐time fault‐tolerant control for rigid spacecraft using a double power reaching law

In this paper, an adaptive fixed‐time fault‐tolerant control scheme is presented for rigid spacecraft with inertia uncertainties and external disturbances. By using an inverse trigonometric function, a novel double power reaching law is constructed to speed up the state stabilization and reduce the chattering phenomenon simultaneously. Then, an adaptive fixed‐time fault‐tolerant controller is developed for the spacecraft with the actuator faults, such that the fixed‐time convergence of the attitude and angular velocity could be guaranteed, and no prior knowledge on the upper bound of the lumped uncertainties is required anymore in the controller design. Comparative simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness and superior performance of the proposed scheme.     

Active disturbance rejection control approach to output‐feedback stabilization of lower triangular nonlinear systems with stochastic uncertainty

In this paper, we apply the active disturbance rejection control approach to output‐feedback stabilization for uncertain lower triangular nonlinear systems with stochastic inverse dynamics and stochastic disturbance. We first design an extended state observer (ESO) to estimate both unmeasured states and stochastic total disturbance that includes unknown system dynamics, unknown stochastic inverse dynamics, external stochastic disturbance, and uncertainty caused by the deviation of control parameter from its nominal value. The stochastic total disturbance is then compensated in the feedback loop. The constant gain and the time‐varying gain are used in ESO design separately. The mean square practical stability for the closed‐loop system with constant gain ESO and the mean square asymptotic stability with time‐varying gain ESO are developed, respectively. Some numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed output‐feedback control scheme. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Output feedback control for attitude tracking

In this paper the problem of attitude tracking control for a rigid spacecraft is addressed. It is assumed that only attitude measurements are available, and thus spacecraft's angular velocity has to be properly estimated. Two alternative schemes are proposed in which the unit quaternion is adopted to represent the orientation. In the first scheme, a second-order model-based observer is adopted to estimate the angular velocity used in the control law. In the second scheme, an estimate of the angular velocity error is obtained through a lead filter. Sufficient conditions ensuring local exponential stability of the two controllers are derived via Lyapunov analysis.     

Fault tolerant control design via hybrid petri nets

This paper proposes a novel fault tolerant control (FTC) scheme for hybrid systems modeled by hybrid Petri nets (HPNs). The HPNs model consists of discrete and continuous PNs. The faults are represented by unobservable discrete transitions or the normal observable discrete transitions with abnormal firing time in discrete PNs. First, an observer‐based fault diagnosis method is proposed to estimate the marking in discrete places with unknown initial marking and diagnose the faulty behavior simultaneously. Then, an adaptive fault tolerant controller is designed to maintain the general mutual exclusion constraints (GMEC) of discrete PNs, and a scheme that adjusts firing speeds of continuous transitions is provided to maintain the optimality of continuous PNs. Finally, an example of an intelligent transportation system consisting of automated vehicles on a bridge is included to demonstrate the effectiveness of our developed techniques. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

Robust Fault‐Tolerant Control of Launch Vehicle Via GPI Observer and Integral Sliding Mode Control

A robust fault‐tolerant attitude control scheme is proposed for a launch vehicle (LV) in the presence of unknown external disturbances, mismodeling dynamics, actuator faults, and actuator's constraints. The input‐output representation is employed to describe the rotational dynamics of LV rendering three independently decoupled second order single‐input‐single‐output (SISO) systems. In the differential algebraic framework, general proportional integral (GPI) observers are used for the estimations of the states and of the generalized disturbances, which include internal perturbations, external disturbances, and unknown actuator failures. In order to avoid the defects of the conventional sliding surface, a new nonlinear integral sliding manifold is introduced for the robust fault‐tolerant sliding mode controller design. The stability of the GPI observer and that of the closed‐loop system are guaranteed by Lyapunov's indirect and direct methods, respectively. The convincing numerical simulation results demonstrate the proposed control scheme is with high attitude tracking performance in the presence of various disturbances, actuator faults, and actuator constraints.