Flight evaluation of an LPV sliding mode observer for sensor FTC

This brief develops a sliding mode sensor fault-tolerant control scheme for a class of linear parameter varying (LPV) systems. It incorporates a sliding mode observer that reconstructs the unknown sensor faults based on only the system inputs and outputs. The reconstructed sensor faults are used to compensate for the corrupted sensor measurements before they are used in the feedback controller. Provided accurate fault estimates can be computed; near nominal control performance can be retained without any controller reconfiguration. Furthermore, the closed-loop stability of the fault-tolerant control (FTC) scheme, involving both a sliding mode controller and a sliding mode observer, is rigorously analyzed. The proposed scheme is validated using the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Multipurpose Aviation Laboratory (MuPAL-α) research aircraft. These flight tests represent the first validation tests of a sliding mode sensor FTC scheme on a full-scale aircraft.