Active Fault Tolerant Flight Control System Design

TL;DR

This paper presents an active fault tolerant control system for autonomous aircraft, combining nonlinear model predictive control with fault detection to quickly identify and respond to engine failures, enhancing flight safety.

Contribution

It introduces a novel integration of nonlinear model predictive control with an unscented Kalman filter for fault detection in autonomous flight systems.

Findings

Fault identified within seconds of occurrence

Controller reallocates control to healthy actuators

System maintains flight stability after engine failure

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the design of an active fault tolerant control system applicable to autonomous flight. The system comprises a nonlinear model predictive based controller integrated with an unscented Kalman filter for fault detection and identification. We apply the fault tolerant control system design to a generic aircraft model, and simulate a failed engine scenario. The results show that the system correctly identifies the fault within seconds of occurrence and updates the nonlinear model predictive controller which is then able to reallocate control authority to the healthy actuators based upon up to date fault information.