A Novel RFDI-FTC System for Thrust-Vectoring Aircraft Undergoing Control Surface Damage and Actuator Faults During Supermaneuverable Flight

Xiaoshan Ma,Bingqian Li,Wenhan Dong

doi:10.1109/access.2019.2949061

Xiaoshan Ma, Bingqian Li + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2019.2949061

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Abstract

In this paper, a novel robust fault detection and identification and fault-tolerant control (RFDI-FTC) system is proposed for thrust-vectoring aircraft (TVA) during supermaneuverable flight. To this end, a TVA model that incorporates control surface damage, actuator faults, disturbances, and aerodynamic parameter uncertainty is described, and a novel RFDI-FTC system is designed for the TVA model, which includes 1) an RFDI subsystem with robustness to disturbances and parameter uncertainty and sensitivity to control surface damage and actuator faults by multiple adaptive observers; 2) a command filter FTC subsystem to eliminate the differential expansion in traditional backstepping control and to compensate for control surface damage, actuator faults, disturbances and parameter uncertainty; and 3) a stability analysis for the RFDI-FTC system. The simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and potential of this system.

Highlights

Thrust-vectoring technology [1]–[3] is one of the most significant methodologies to control an aircraft’s roll, pitch, and yaw maneuvering at a low airspeed and a high attack angle, called supermaneuverable flight [4], [5], which can realize control surface and actuator redundancy and improve flight performance by coordinating thrust-vectoring paddle deflection
The problems of residual-based actuator fault detection are investigated in a previous work [10] for a class of uncertain linear systems with disturbances, where the interval observer is robust to disturbances but sensitive to actuator faults in the sense of interval estimation
This paper proposes an RFDI mechanism for thrust-vectoring aircraft (TVA) to detect, identify and estimate control surface damage and evaluate actuator loss of effectiveness (LOE) faults and actuator stuck faults step by step and accurately; the whole RFDI mechanism can maintain robustness to disturbances and parameter uncertainties and sensitivity to control surface damage and actuator faults to reduce false alarms and increase the accuracy of fault detection and identification (FDI)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Thrust-vectoring technology [1]–[3] is one of the most significant methodologies to control an aircraft’s roll, pitch, and yaw maneuvering at a low airspeed and a high attack angle, called supermaneuverable flight [4], [5], which can realize control surface and actuator redundancy and improve flight performance by coordinating thrust-vectoring paddle deflection. The above analyses show that most of the literature does not consider control surface damage together with actuator faults, nor does it consider disturbances and parameter uncertainties in the FTC design process These factors should be addressed together to ensure safety and stability during supermaneuverable flight. This paper comprehensively investigates an RFDI-FTC system for TVA with control surface damage, actuator faults, disturbances and parameter uncertainty in conjunction with highly unsteady and nonlinear flows during supermaneuverable flight. This paper proposes an RFDI mechanism for TVA to detect, identify and estimate control surface damage and evaluate actuator loss of effectiveness (LOE) faults and actuator stuck faults step by step and accurately; the whole RFDI mechanism can maintain robustness to disturbances and parameter uncertainties and sensitivity to control surface damage and actuator faults to reduce false alarms and increase the accuracy of FDI.

TVA MODEL DESCRIPTION

ACTUATOR FAULT MODELING

SIMULATION

SIMULATION RESULTS

CONCLUSION