Fuzzy Nonlinear Unknown Input Observer Design with Fault Diagnosis Applications

Abstract

An approach for nonlinear unknown input observer (NUIO) design is proposed for a class of nonlinear systems representable by a Takagi—Sugeno (TS) fuzzy system. The proposed NUIO design for TS fuzzy systems is carried out for two cases: (1) the premise variables do not depend on the unmeasured state variables; and (2) the premise variables depend on the unmeasured state variables. Sufficient conditions for the existence of NUIOs are derived, and a linear matrix inequality (LMI)-based design strategy is presented for NUIO design purposes. The proposed NUIO design approach is then applied to solve actuator fault detection and isolation problems for nonlinear systems described by TS fuzzy systems. To this end, a system structure with two groups of inputs where one group of inputs is treated as unknown inputs is developed. Based on the system structure, a bank of NUIOs are then designed using the developed NUIO design approach in order to investigate the following fault diagnosis problems. (1) How can the NUIOs be used for detecting faults? (2) Under what conditions is it possible to isolate single and/or multiple faults? (3) What is the maximum number of faults that can be isolated simultaneously? (4) How can multiple fault isolation be achieved? In this article we present a NUIO-based fault-detection scheme for problem (1), give sufficient conditions for problem (2), determine the maximum number of faults that can be isolated for problem (3), and propose a fault-diagnosis scheme using a bank of NUIOs to solve problem (4). As an illustrative example, Lorenz’s chaotic system with multi-inputs is chosen to show the effect of the designed NUIOs and the proposed fault detection and isolation scheme. Simulation results show that accurate state estimation is achieved and actuator faults can be detected and isolated successfully.