Application of absolute stability theory to robust control against loss of actuator effectiveness

Abstract

The problem studied here is passive fault tolerant control (FTC) for actuator faults as a result of loss of effectiveness. This FTC problem is formulated in the 'absolute stability theory framework'. Based on this formulation, different tools from absolute stability theory are applied. Four controllers are proposed for four problem settings: (a) LTI certain plants, (b) uncertain LTI plants, (c) LTI models with input saturations and (d) non-linear affine single-input plants. The proposed controllers are tested on the hovercraft numerical example. © 2009 The Institution of Engineering and Technology.