Robust supervisory fault-tolerant flight control system

In this paper we present a new supervisory scheme for robust online failure detection and identification (FDI) and adaptive reconfigurable control (ARC) in the presence of multiple control effector failures. The scheme, based on adaptive interacting multiple observers (AIMO), substantially reduces the computational requirements compared to the previous designs, and increases the robustness of the overall system by controlling the plant with a fixed robust controller most of the time. The feasibility of the proposed design was demonstrated through nonlinear simulations of F/A-18C/D aircraft during carrier landing in the presence of battle damage and failures of flight-critical subsystems and components. In particular, we demonstrate the accommodation of a multiple failure that includes 50% left stabilator damage, rudder lock-in-place, and a large external disturbance.