Fault Diagnosis for Actuators in a Class of Nonlinear Systems Based on an Adaptive Fault Detection Observer

The problem of actuators’ fault diagnosis is pursued for a class of nonlinear control systems that are affected by bounded measurement noise and external disturbances. A novel fault diagnosis algorithm has been proposed by combining the idea of adaptive control theory and the approach of fault detection observer. The asymptotical stability of the fault detection observer is guaranteed by setting the adaptive adjusting law of the unknown fault vector. A theoretically rigorous proof of asymptotical stability has been given. Under the condition that random measurement noise generated by the sensors of control systems and external disturbances exist simultaneously, the designed fault diagnosis algorithm is able to successfully give specific estimated values of state variables and failures rather than just giving a simple fault warning. Moreover, the proposed algorithm is very simple and concise and is easy to be applied to practical engineering. Numerical experiments are carried out to evaluate the performance of the fault diagnosis algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed diagnostic strategy has a satisfactory estimation effect.