Robust Adaptive Control Allocation Schemes for Overactuated Underwater Vehicles under Actuator Faults

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the fault-tolerant path following control problem for an overactuated underwater vehicle subject to input saturation and rate of change constraints, actuator faults and parametric (mass and inertia) uncertainty. A robust adaptive control allocation strategy is proposed capable to reconfigure the distribution of the control effort among the remaining healthy actuators in the case some of them failed. The online estimation of actuators' effectiveness and bias fault parameters is integrated with the control allocation and reconfiguration unit. The robustness and performance of the scheme are shown by evaluating the results of simulations and pool experiments of different path-following control problems using overactuated underwater vehicles.