Actuators additive SVD-based fault-tolerant control for a combat aircraft

This paper addresses the development of an active fault tolerant control scheme. The methodology is based on a fault detection and diagnosis procedure relying on an unknown input observer designed via Singular Value Decomposition (SVD). Furthermore, the control reconfiguration mechanism is removed in favor of an additional control law directly injected into the nominal one to compensate for the effect of the fault. Therefore, the architecture proposed in this paper circumvents the decision-making problem, which usually requires both significant attention and time. Another advantage of the SVD strategy is that it does not require any tuning parameters, hence greatly simplifying its design. The control scheme is then applied to a linear model of a modern combat aircraft subject to actuators faults. Simulation results finally show the fault estimation and accommodation, leading to the enhancement of the flying quality.