Linear parameter-varying-based fault-tolerant controller design for a class of over-actuated non-linear systems with applications to electric vehicles

This study presents a passive fault-tolerant (FT) controller to preserve stability of a class of over-actuated non-linear systems in spite of actuator faults. In order to deal with different types of actuator faults, a generalised fault model is adopted such that the FT controller may have the advantage of being able to deal with different types of actuator faults. By grouping the control efforts which have similar effects on the system together, the original over-actuated system can be transferred into a square system, which makes the proposed FT controller has no requirement of the control effort distribution ratios for the actual control effects. The disturbances and uncertainties caused by the actuator faults are attenuated by an FT controller which is designed based on the linear-parameter varying method. The eigenvalue positions of the closed-loop system are constrained into a disk to obtain better transient responses. The proposed FT control method is applied to control a four wheel independently-actuated electric ground vehicle. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed FT control approach.