Predefined-time fault-tolerant attitude control for tailless aircraft considering actuator input saturation

Abstract

This paper proposes a predefined-time fault-tolerant attitude control methodology to tailless aircraft in the presence of external disturbance, input saturation, and possibly the infinite number of time-varying actuator faults. First, a novel predefined-time performance function is designed, subsequently, a smooth function and bound-based adaptation laws are developed to compensate for the adverse influence caused by actuator fault and input saturation simultaneously. Such a design is less constrained to faults, requires less computation burden, and can be applied to a larger scope of fault scenarios. Besides, a piecewise continuous Lyapunov function is introduced to proceed with the stability analysis of the closed-loop system, and it has been analytically proved that the attitude tracking errors can converge to a predefined residual set within a predefined time while guaranteeing that actuator fault and input saturation are well handled. Finally, comparative simulations are carried out to validate the effectiveness and superiority of the developed control scheme.