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Paper details
Number 1 - March 2015
Volume 25 - 2015
SMAC-FDI: A single model active fault detection and isolation system for unmanned aircraft
Guillaume J.J. Ducard
Abstract
This article presents a single model active fault detection and isolation system (SMAC-FDI) which is designed to efficiently
detect and isolate a faulty actuator in a system, such as a small (unmanned) aircraft. This FDI system is based on a single
and simple aerodynamic model of an aircraft in order to generate some residuals, as soon as an actuator fault occurs. These
residuals are used to trigger an active strategy based on artificial exciting signals that searches within the residuals for the
signature of an actuator fault. Fault isolation is carried out through an innovative mechanism that does not use the previous
residuals but the actuator control signals directly. In addition, the paper presents a complete parameter-tuning strategy for
this FDI system. The novel concepts are backed-up by simulations of a small unmanned aircraft experiencing successive
actuator failures. The robustness of the SMAC-FDI method is tested in the presence of model uncertainties, realistic sensor
noise and wind gusts. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion on the computational efficiency of the method and its
ability to run on small microcontrollers.
Keywords
fault detection and isolation, unmanned aerial vehicles, Kalman filtering, computationally efficient diagnosis system, active fault diagnosis, artificial excitation system