Residual generator function design for actuator fault detection and isolation of a Piper PA30 aircraft

This paper addresses the problem of the detection and isolation of actuator faults on a general aviation aircraft, characterised by a nonlinear model, in the presence of wind gust disturbances. In particular, this work investigates the design of residual generators in order to realise complete diagnosis schemes when additive faults are present. The use of a canonical input-output polynomial description for the linearised model of the aircraft allows to compute in a straightforward way minimal order residual generators. These tools lead to dynamic filters that can guarantee both disturbance signal decoupling and robustness properties with respect to linearisation errors. The results obtained in the simulation of the faulty behaviour of a Piper PA30 are finally reported.