Switching fault-tolerant control for a class of nonlinear systems with actuator faults

This paper presents a fault-tolerant control (FTC) strategy for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with actuator faults. The faults acting on the actuator are described by a unified model of bias, loss-of-effectiveness, stuck and hard-over faults. By constructing a logic-based switching rule, the actuator faults can be automatically accommodated by switching from the stuck actuator to a healthy one (or even a partly-losing-effectiveness one with bias), even in the presence of large parametric uncertainty. A simulation example of single-link flexible-joint robot is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed FTC controller.