Diagnosis of active dynamic control systems using virtual sensors and observers

During the last decade modern advanced mechatronical systems consisting of sensors, processor units, electronics, and actuators have been introduced to passenger cars. The applications ranging from adaptive cruise control, steering assist, stability control and active suspension systems offer great benefits for the handling, comfort, and safety of the vehicles. At the same time any malfunction of these systems could compromise the safety of the driver and the passengers. Due to this fact the operation of the system should be monitored and faults occurring to the system shall be detected and isolated as fast as possible. In order to avoid additional sensors, hence increasing cost and decreasing reliability, model-based approaches have been gaining more and more grounds in this field. In this contribution a model-based fault detection applied on a vehicle control system is presented which rely on mathematical descriptions of the system and which yields a robust fault detection and isolation of faults affecting the system