Sensor-fault tolerance using robust MPC with set-based state estimation and active fault isolation

In this paper, a sensor fault-tolerant control (FTC) scheme using robust model predictive control (MPC) and set theoretic fault detection and isolation (FDI) is proposed. The MPC controller is used to both robustly control the plant and actively guarantee fault isolation (FI). In this scheme, fault detection (FD) is passive by interval observers, while fault isolation (FI) is active by MPC. The advantage of the proposed approach consists in using MPC to actively decouple the effect of sensor faults on the outputs such that one output component only corresponds to one sensor fault in terms of FI, which can utilize the feature of sensor faults for FI. A numerical example is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.Postprint (author’s final draft

A review of convex approaches for control, observation and safety of linear parameter varying and Takagi-Sugeno systems

This paper provides a review about the concept of convex systems based on Takagi-Sugeno, linear parameter varying (LPV) and quasi-LPV modeling. These paradigms are capable of hiding the nonlinearities by means of an equivalent description which uses a set of linear models interpolated by appropriately defined weighing functions. Convex systems have become very popular since they allow applying extended linear techniques based on linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) to complex nonlinear systems. This survey aims at providing the reader with a significant overview of the existing LMI-based techniques for convex systems in the fields of control, observation and safety. Firstly, a detailed review of stability, feedback, tracking and model predictive control (MPC) convex controllers is considered. Secondly, the problem of state estimation is addressed through the design of proportional, proportional-integral, unknown input and descriptor observers. Finally, safety of convex systems is discussed by describing popular techniques for fault diagnosis and fault tolerant control (FTC).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Set-valued observer-based active fault-tolerant model predictive control

This paper proposes an integrated actuator and sensor active fault-tolerant model predictive control scheme. In this scheme, fault detection is implemented by using a set-valued observer, fault isolation (FI) is performed by set manipulations, and fault-tolerant control is carried out through the design of a robust model predictive control law. In this paper, a set-valued observer is used to passively complete the fault detection task, while FI is actively performed by making use of the constraint-handling capability of robust model predictive control. The set-valued observer is chosen to implement fault detection and isolation (FDI) because of its simple mathematical structure that is not affected by the type of faults such as sensor, actuator, and system-structural faults. This means that only one set-valued observer is needed to monitor all considered actuator and sensor statuses (health and fault) and to carry out the fault detection and isolation task instead of using a bank of observers (each observer matching a health/fault status). Furthermore, in the proposed scheme, the advantage of robust model predictive control is that it can effectively deal with system constraints, disturbances, and noises and allow to implement an active FI strategy, which can improve FI sensitivity when compared with the passive FI methods. Finally, a case study based on the well-known two-tank system is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed fault-tolerant model predictive control scheme.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Robust FDI/FTC using Set-membership Methods and Application to Real Case Studies

This paper reviews the use of set-membership methods in robust fault detection and isolation (FDI) and tolerant control (FTC). Set-membership methods use a deterministic unknown-but-bounded description of noise and parametric uncertainty (interval models). These methods aims to check the consistency between observed and predicted behavior by using simple sets to approximate the set of possible behaviors (in parameter or state space). When an inconsistency is detected a fault can be indicated, otherwise nothing can be stated. The same principle can be used to identify interval models for fault detection and to develop methods for fault tolerance evaluation. Finally, some real application of these methods will end the paper exemplifying the success of these methods in FDI/FTC.Postprint (published version

Predictive control approaches to fault tolerant control of wind turbines

This thesis focuses on active fault tolerant control (AFTC) of wind turbine systems. Faults in wind turbine systems can be in the form of sensor faults, actuator faults, or component faults. These faults can occur in different locations, such as the wind speed sensor, the generator system, drive train system or pitch system. In this thesis, some AFTC schemes are proposed for wind turbine faults in the above locations. Model predictive control (MPC) is used in these schemes to design the wind turbine controller such that system constraints and dual control goals of the wind turbine are considered. In order to deal with the nonlinearity in the turbine model, MPC is combined with Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy modelling. Different fault diagnosis methods are also proposed in different AFTC schemes to isolate or estimate wind turbine faults.The main contributions of the thesis are summarized as follows:A new effective wind speed (EWS) estimation method via least-squares support vector machines (LSSVM) is proposed. Measurements from the wind turbine rotor speed sensor and the generator speed sensor are utilized by LSSVM to estimate the EWS. Following the EWS estimation, a wind speed sensor fault isolation scheme via LSSVM is proposed.A robust predictive controller is designed to consider the EWS estimation error. This predictive controller serves as the baseline controller for the wind turbine system operating in the region below rated wind speed.T-S fuzzy MPC combining MPC and T-S fuzzy modelling is proposed to design the wind turbine controller. MPC can deal with wind turbine system constraints externally. On the other hand, T-S fuzzy modelling can approximate the nonlinear wind turbine system with a linear time varying (LTV) model such that controller design can be based on this LTV model. Therefore, the advantages of MPC and T-S fuzzy modelling are both preserved in the proposed T-S fuzzy MPC.A T-S fuzzy observer, based on online eigenvalue assignment, is proposed as the sensor fault isolation scheme for the wind turbine system. In this approach, the fuzzy observer is proposed to deal with the nonlinearity in the wind turbine system and estimate system states. Furthermore, the residual signal generated from this fuzzy observer is used to isolate the faulty sensor.A sensor fault diagnosis strategy utilizing both analytical and hardware redundancies is proposed for wind turbine systems. This approach is proposed due to the fact that in the real application scenario, both analytical and hardware redundancies of wind turbines are available for designing AFTC systems.An actuator fault estimation method based on moving horizon estimation (MHE) is proposed for wind turbine systems. The estimated fault by MHE is then compensated by a T-S fuzzy predictive controller. The fault estimation unit and the T-S fuzzy predictive controller are combined to form an AFTC scheme for wind turbine actuator faults

Reliable fault-tolerant model predictive control of drinking water transport networks

This paper proposes a reliable fault-tolerant model predictive control applied to drinking water transport networks. After a fault has occurred, the predictive controller should be redesigned to cope with the fault effect. Before starting to apply the fault-tolerant control strategy, it should be evaluated whether the predictive controller will be able to continue operating after the fault appearance. This is done by means of a structural analysis to determine loss of controllability after the fault complemented with feasibility analysis of the optimization problem related to the predictive controller design, so as to consider the fault effect in actuator constraints. Moreover, by evaluating the admissibility of the different actuator-fault configurations, critical actuators regarding fault tolerance can be identified considering structural, feasibility, performance and reliability analyses. On the other hand, the proposed approach allows a degradation analysis of the system to be performed. As a result of these analyses, the predictive controller design can be modified by adapting constraints such that the best achievable performance with some pre-established level of reliability will be achieved. The proposed approach is tested on the Barcelona drinking water transport network.Postprint (author's final draft

Fault-tolerant load reduction control for large offshore wind turbines

Offshore wind turbines suffer from asymmetrical loading (blades, tower etc.), leading to enhanced structural fatigue. As well as asymmetrical loading different types of faults (pitch system faults etc.) can occur simultaneously, causing degradation of load mitigation performance and enhanced fatigue. Individual pitch control (IPC) provides an important method to achieve mitigation of rotor asymmetric loads, but this may be accompanied by a resulting enhancement of pitch movement leading to increased possibility of pitch system faults, which negative effects on IPC performance.This thesis focuses on combining the fault tolerant control (FTC) techniques with load reduction strategies by a more intelligent pitch control system (i.e. collective pitch control and IPC) for offshore wind turbines in a system level to reduce the operation & maintenance costs and improve the system reliability. The scenario of load mitigation is analogous to the FTC problem because the action of rotor/tower bending can be considered as a fault effect. The essential concept is to attempt to account for all the "fault effects" in the rotor and tower systems which can weaken the effect of bending moment reduction through the use of IPC.Motivated by the above, this thesis focuses on four aspects to fill the gap of the combination between FTC and IPC schemes. Firstly, a preview control system using model predictive control with future wind speed is proposed, which could be a possible alternative to using LiDAR technology when using preview control for load reduction. Secondly, a multivariable IPC controller for both blade and tower load mitigation considering the inherent couplings is investigated. Thirdly, appropriate control-based fault monitoring strategies including fault detection and fault estimation FE-based FTC scheme are proposed for several different pitch actuator/sensor faults. Furthermore, the combined analysis of an FE-based FTC strategy with the IPC system at a system level is provided and the robustness of the proposed strategy is verified

Diagnosis and fault-tolerant control using set-based methods

The fault-tolerant capability is an important performance specification for most of technical systems. The examples showing its importance are some catastrophes in civil aviation. According to some official investigations, some air incidents are technically avoidable if the pilots can take right measures. But, relying on the skill and experience of the pilots, it cannot be guaranteed that reliable flight decisions are always made. Instead, if fault-tolerant strategies can be included in the decision-making procedure, it will be very useful for safer flight. Fault-tolerant control is generally classified into passive and active fault-tolerant control. Passive fault-tolerant control relies on robustness of controller, which can only provide limited fault-tolerant ability, while active fault-tolerant control turns to a fault detection and isolation module to obtain fault information and then actively take actions to tolerate the effect of faults. Thus, active fault-tolerant control generally has stronger fault-tolerant ability. In this dissertation, one focuses on active fault-tolerant control, which for this case considers model predictive control and set-based fault detection and isolation. Model predictive control is a successful advanced control strategy in process industry and has been widely used for processes such as chemistry and water treatment, because of its ability to deal with multivariable constrained systems. However, the performance of model redictive control has deep dependence on system-model accuracy. Realistically, it is impossible to avoid the effect of modelling errors, disturbances, noises and faults, which always result in model mismatch. Comparatively, model mismatch induced by faults is possible to be effectively handled by suitable fault-tolerant strategies. The objective of this dissertation is to endow model predictive control with fault-tolerant ability to improve its effectiveness. In order to reach this objective, set-based fault detection and isolation methods are used in the proposed fault-tolerant schemes. The important advantage of set-based fault detection and isolation is that it can make robust fault detection and isolation decisions, which is key for taking right fault-tolerant measures. This dissertation includes four parts. The first part introduces this research, presents the state of the art and gives an introduction of used research tools. The second part proposes set-based fault detection and isolation for actuator or=and sensor faults, which are involved in interval observers, invariant sets and set-membership estimation. First, the relationship between interval observers and invariant sets is investigated. Then, actuator and sensor faults are separately coped with depending on their own features. The third part focuses on actuator or=and sensor fault-tolerant model predictive control, where the control strategy is robust model predictive control (tube-based and min-max approaches). The last part draws some conclusions, summarizes this research and gives clues for the further work.La capacidad de los sistemas para tolerar fallos es una importante especificación de desempeño para la mayoría de sistemas. Ejemplos que muestran su importancia son algunas catástrofes en aviación civil. De acuerdo a investigaciones oficiales, algunos incidentes aéreos son técnicamente evitables si los pilotos pudiesen tomar las medidas adecuadas. Aun así, basándose en las habilidades y experiencia de los pilotos, no se puede garantizar que decisiones de vuelo confiables serán siempre posible de tomar. En cambio, si estrategias de tolerancia a fallos se pudieran incluir en el proceso de toma de decisión, los vuelos serían mucho más seguros. El control tolerante a fallos es generalmente clasificado en control pasivo y activo. El control pasivo se basa en la robustez del controlador, el cual sólo provee una habilidad limitada de tolerancia a fallos, mientras que el control tolerante a fallos de tipo activo se convierte en un modulo de detección y aislamiento de fallos que permite obtener información de éstos, y luego, activamente, tomar acciones para tolerar el efecto de dichos fallos. Así pues, el control activo generalmente tiene habilidades más fuertes de tolerancia a fallos. Esta tesis se enfoca en control tolerante a fallos activo, para lo cual considera el control predictivo basado en modelos y la detección y aislamiento de fallos basados en conjuntos. El control predictivo basado en modelos es una estrategia de control exitosa en la industria de procesos y ha sido ampliamente utilizada para procesos químicos y tratamiento de aguas, debido a su habilidad de tratar con sistemas multivariables con restricciones. A pesar de esto, el desempeño del control predictivo basado en modelos tiene una profunda dependencia de la precisión del modelo del sistema. Siendo realistas, es imposible evitar el efecto de errores de modelado, perturbaciones, ruidos y fallos, que siempre llevan a diferencias entre el modelo y el sistema real. Comparativamente, el error de modelo inducido por los fallos es posible de ser manejado efectivamente por estrategias adecuadas de control tolerante a fallos. Con el fin de alcanzar este objetivo, métodos de detección y aislamiento de fallos basados en conjuntos son utilizados en los esquemas de tolerancia a fallos propuestos en esta tesis. La ventaja importante de estas técnicas de detección y aislamiento de fallos basadas en conjuntos es que puede tomar decisiones robustas de detección y aislamiento, lo cual es clave para tomar medidas acertadas de tolerancia a fallos. Esta tesis esta dividida en cuatro partes. La primera parte es introductoria, presenta el estado del arte y hace una introducción a las herramientas de investigación utilizadas. La segunda parte expone la detección y aislamiento de fallos en actuadores y/o sensores, basándose en teoría de conjuntos, a partir de observadores de intervalo, y conjuntos invariantes. La tercera parte se enfoca en el control predictivo robusto (con enfoques basados tanto en tubos robustos como en min-max) con tolerancia a fallos en actuadores y/o sensores. La cuarta parte presenta algunas conclusiones, hace un resumen de esta investigación y da algunas ideas para trabajos futuros

Malliprediktiivinen säädin Tennessee Eastman prosessille

This thesis aims to design a multivariable Model Predictive Control (MPC) scheme for a complex industrial process. The focus of the thesis is on the implementation and testing of a linear MPC control strategy combined with fault detection and diagnosis methods. The studied control methodology is based on a linear time invariant state-space model and the quadratic programming optimization procedure. The control scheme is realized as a supervisory one, where the MPC is used to calculate the optimal set point trajectories for the lower level PI controllers, thus aiming to decrease the fluctuations in the end product flows. The Tennessee Eastman (TE) process is used as the testing environment. The TE process is a benchmark based on a real process modified for testing. It has five units, four reactants, an inert, two products and a byproduct. The control objective is to maintain the production rate and the product quality at the desired level. To achieve this, the MPC implemented in this thesis gives setpoints to three stabilizing PI control loops around the reactor and the product stripper. The performance of the designed control systems is evaluated by inducing process disturbances, setpoint changes, and faults for two operational regimes. The obtained results show the efficiency of the adopted approach in handling disturbances and flexibility in control of different operational regimes without the need of retuning. To suppress the effects caused by faults, an additional level that provides fault detection and controller reconfiguration should be developed as further research.Tämän diplomityön tavoite on suunnitella monimuuttujainen-malliprediktiivinen säädin (MPC) teolliselle prosessille. Diplomityö keskittyy toteuttamaan ja testaamaan lineaarisen MPC strategian, joka yhdistettynä vikojen havainnointiin ja tunnistukseen sekä uudelleen konfigurointiin voidaan laajentaa vikasietoiseksi. Tutkittu säätöstrategia perustuu lineaariseen ajan suhteen muuttumattomaan tilataso-malliin ja neliöllisen ohjelmoinnin optimointimenetelmään. Säätö on toteutettu nk. ylemmän tason järjestelmänä, eli MPC:tä käytetään laskemaan optimaaliset asetusarvot alemman säätötason PI säätimille, tavoitteena vähentää vaihtelua lopputuotteen virroissa. Tennessee Eastman (TE) prosessia käytetään testiympäristönä. TE on testiprosessi, joka perustuu todelliseen teollisuuden prosessiin ja jota on muokattu testauskäyttöön sopivaksi. Prosessissa on viisi yksikköä, neljä lähtöainetta, inertti, kaksi tuotetta ja yksi sivutuote. Säätötavoite on ylläpitää haluttu taso tuotannon määrässä ja laadussa. Tämän saavuttamiseksi tässä diplomityössä toteutettu MPC antaa asetusarvoja kolmelle stabiloivalle PI-säätimelle reaktorin ja stripperin hallinnassa. Säätösysteemin suorituskykyä arvioitiin aiheuttamalla prosessiin häiriöitä, asetusarvon muutoksia ja vikoja eri operatiivisissa olosuhteissa. Saavutetut tulokset osoittavat valitun menetelmän tehokkuuden häiriöiden käsittelyyn ja joustavaan säätöön eri olosuhteissa. Tutkimuksen jatkokehityksenä vikojen vaikutuksen vaimentamiseksi säätöön tulisi lisätä taso, joka havaitsee viat ja uudelleen konfiguroi säätimen sen mukaisesti

Plug-and-Play Fault Detection and control-reconfiguration for a class of nonlinear large-scale constrained systems

This paper deals with a novel Plug-and-Play (PnP) architecture for the control and monitoring of Large-Scale Systems (LSSs). The proposed approach integrates a distributed Model Predictive Control (MPC) strategy with a distributed Fault Detection (FD) architecture and methodology in a PnP framework. The basic concept is to use the FD scheme as an autonomous decision support system: once a fault is detected, the faulty subsystem can be unplugged to avoid the propagation of the fault in the interconnected LSS. Analogously, once the issue has been solved, the disconnected subsystem can be re-plugged-in. PnP design of local controllers and detectors allow these operations to be performed safely, i.e. without spoiling stability and constraint satisfaction for the whole LSS. The PnP distributed MPC is derived for a class of nonlinear LSSs and an integrated PnP distributed FD architecture is proposed. Simulation results in two paradigmatic examples show the effectiveness and the potential of the general methodology