Robust multiactuator fault‐tolerant MPC design for constrained systems

In this paper, we present a robust actuator fault‐tolerant control strategy for constrained linear systems in the presence of bounded state and input disturbances. The scheme is based on a bank of state estimators that match different fault situations that can occur in the system. A fault detection and isolation unit verifies that suitable residual variables lie inside pre‐computed sets and selects the estimate that matches the current plant behaviour. A bank of robustly stabilizing tube‐based model predictive control laws is designed, each associated to a fault scenario, and the appropriate controller is selected among them by using the information provided by the fault detection and isolation module. By means of ‘tubes’ of trajectories, we ensure robust closed‐loop exponential stability of the constrained system and good performance in the fault‐free case and under the occurrence of abrupt actuator faults, including actuator outage and loss of effectiveness by an unknown amount. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.