Robust Actuator-Fault-Tolerant Control System Based on Sliding-Mode Observer for Thrust-Vectoring Aircrafts

Abstract

In this paper, a robust actuator-fault-tolerant control (FTC) system is proposed for thrust-vectoring aircraft (TVA) control. To this end, a TVA model with actuator fault dynamics, disturbances, and uncertain aerodynamic parameters is described, and a local fault detection and identification (FDI) mechanism is proposed to locate and identify faults, which utilizes an adaptive sliding-mode observer (SMO) to detect actuator faults and two SMOs to identify and estimate their parameters. Finally, a fault-tolerant controller is designed to compensate for these actuator faults, disturbances, and uncertain aerodynamic parameters; the approach combines back-stepping control with fault parameters and a high-order SMO. Furthermore, the stability of the entire control system is validated, and simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and potential for this robust FTC system.