Modeling and Switched Control of Modular Reconfigurable Flight Array for Faulty Redundancy

Abstract

The modular reconfigurable flight array (MRFA) is composed of multiple identical flight unit modules, which has several advantages such as structural variability, strong versatility, and low cost. Due to the redundant properties of MRFA, it keeps stable by adopting a suitable control law when it suffers actuator fault or actively stops some actuators. To address the attitude stability issue of the modular flight array when actuators actively stop or encounter failures during the flight process, a modeling method based on a switched system is proposed at first, and an arbitrary switched controller design method based on the segmented Lyapunov functions and the average dwell time is also given. By introducing the actuator efficiency matrix, the dynamic switched model of the modular flight array is described. Then, a group of arbitrary switched linear feedback gains is designed to ensure the exponential stability of the flight array if the switched process satisfies the constraint of the average dwell time. Simulation and experiment results indicate that when there is an accident in the actuator states, the switched controllers can achieve precise tracking of the desired trajectory, thus confirming the effectiveness of the proposed modeling method and controller.