Fault estimation using H∞ observer for a robot for inspecting power transmission lines

In this paper, a method for actuator fault estimation is proposed for a robot for inspecting power transmission lines. A robust H_∞ observer is designed to deal with the modeling error caused by a measured inclination angle. The observer gain is obtained by solving a linear matrix inequality. The convergence and existence of the H∞ observer are analyzed. Using the proposed method, the constant actuator fault is estimated accurately and the effect of the modeling error on fault estimation errors is less than the given attenuation level. Using an inspection robot model, the efficiency of the proposed method is demonstrated.