A guidance reconfiguration strategy to handle aileron actuator fault

Actuator faults reduce the amount of control authority remaining in the UAV system which may impact its ability to follow a particular path profile required to successfully complete its mission. Fault tolerant guidance may be deployed to enhance the mission success rate when fault tolerant control may not be sufficient alone. This paper proposes a method of reconfiguring guidance to accommodate the degraded system´s aileron capability, based on the severity of the fault and the desired path´s profile acceleration demand. Using both the path planner and path following algorithms parameters, the proposed method provides an additional degree of freedom in design to allow for more flexibility in the handling of the fault. Simulations using an Aerosonde UAV model show the proposed method is able to improve on the guidance path tracking performance when a large stuck aileron fault occurs.