Health-aware control of an octorotor UAV system based on actuator reliability

A major goal in modern flight control systems is the need of improving the reliability. This work presents a reliable control approach of an octorotor UAV that allows distributing the control effort among the actuators using health actuator information. The octorotor is an over-actuated system where the redundancy of the actuators allows the redistribution of the control effort among the existing actuators according to a given control strategy. The priority is given to each actuator according to the capabilities and reliability of this actuatorPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

A recursive LMI-based algorithm for efficient vertex reduction in LPV systems

This paper proposes a new algorithm to reduce the number of gains of a polytopic LPV controller considering generic tuples of vertices, for which a common controller gain can be used. The use of Frobenius norm and the inclusion of the input matrix in the LMIs perturbation matrix allows decreasing the conservativeness to select vertices which are combinable, with respect to a previous approach based on Gershgorin circles. A combinability metric that can be applied to an arbitrary partition of the set of vertices is defined. Then, a recursive algorithm finds a lesser-fragmented combinable partition at each iteration by combining together two elements of a partition. The algorithm aims at finding combinable partitions with minimal cardinality in fewer attempts, always preserving the original control performance specifications. The proposed method is validated using numerical examples, a twin rotor MIMO system and a two-link robotic manipulator.This work has been co-financed by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERFD) through the project SCAV (ref. MINECO DPI2017-88403-R), by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union in the framework of the ERDF Operational Program of Catalonia 2014-2020 (ref. 001-P-001643 Looming Factory) and by the DGR of Generalitat de Catalunya (SAC group ref. 2017/SGR/482).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Health-aware and fault-tolerant control of an octorotor UAV system based on actuator reliability

A major goal in modern flight control systems is the need for improving reliability. This work presents a health-aware and fault-tolerant control approach for an octorotor UAV that allows distributing the control effort among the available actuators based on their health information. However, it is worth mentioning that, in the case of actuator fault occurrence, a reliability improvement can come into conflict with UAV controllability. Therefore, system reliability sensitivity is redefined and modified to prevent uncontrollable situations during the UAV’s mission. The priority given to each actuator is related to its importance in system reliability. Moreover, the proposed approach can reconfigure the controller to compensate actuator faults and improve the overall system reliability or delay maintenance tasks.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Treatment with tocilizumab or corticosteroids for COVID-19 patients with hyperinflammatory state: a multicentre cohort study (SAM-COVID-19)

Objectives: The objective of this study was to estimate the association between tocilizumab or corticosteroids and the risk of intubation or death in patients with coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) with a hyperinflammatory state according to clinical and laboratory parameters. Methods: A cohort study was performed in 60 Spanish hospitals including 778 patients with COVID-19 and clinical and laboratory data indicative of a hyperinflammatory state. Treatment was mainly with tocilizumab, an intermediate-high dose of corticosteroids (IHDC), a pulse dose of corticosteroids (PDC), combination therapy, or no treatment. Primary outcome was intubation or death; follow-up was 21 days. Propensity score-adjusted estimations using Cox regression (logistic regression if needed) were calculated. Propensity scores were used as confounders, matching variables and for the inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTWs). Results: In all, 88, 117, 78 and 151 patients treated with tocilizumab, IHDC, PDC, and combination therapy, respectively, were compared with 344 untreated patients. The primary endpoint occurred in 10 (11.4%), 27 (23.1%), 12 (15.4%), 40 (25.6%) and 69 (21.1%), respectively. The IPTW-based hazard ratios (odds ratio for combination therapy) for the primary endpoint were 0.32 (95%CI 0.22-0.47; p < 0.001) for tocilizumab, 0.82 (0.71-1.30; p 0.82) for IHDC, 0.61 (0.43-0.86; p 0.006) for PDC, and 1.17 (0.86-1.58; p 0.30) for combination therapy. Other applications of the propensity score provided similar results, but were not significant for PDC. Tocilizumab was also associated with lower hazard of death alone in IPTW analysis (0.07; 0.02-0.17; p < 0.001). Conclusions: Tocilizumab might be useful in COVID-19 patients with a hyperinflammatory state and should be prioritized for randomized trials in this situatio

Reconfigurability analysis of multirotor UAVs under actuator faults

This paper presents a reconfigurability analysis for different multirotor structures. The aim is to determine whether the multirotor is able to continue the mission without losing its controllability when faults occur in its actuators. The classical controllability condition is not enough in these systems. Hence two complementary methodologies have been developed to analyse the controllability of the multirotors: Analysis of the Static Reconfiguration Module (ASRM) and Attainable Control Set (ACS).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Actuator fault estimation using optimization-based learning techniques for linear parameter varying systems with unreliable scheduling parameters

A novel fault diagnosis procedure is proposed in this paper to estimate faults using a linear parameter varying (LPV) model whose scheduling parameters depend on the fault. A wrong determination of the operating conditions could lead the system to an undesired performance or even to an unstable situation, when classical fault diagnosis approaches are applied. This paper addresses this issue by formulating fault diagnosis as a dynamic optimization problem, solved by using a novel hybrid technique that combines a Luenberger-based observer with artificial intelligent (AI) optimization-based algorithms. The observer supervises the health of the system, while AI-based algorithms are able to reconstruct the faulty signal in real-time when the observer determines that the system is under a fault. The efficiency of the proposed fault diagnosis scheme, the three AI-based algorithms based on artificial bee colony and particle swarm optimization, and the gradient-based algorithm developed in this paper, are assessed using a numerical example.This work has been co-financed by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERFD) through the project SaCoAV (ref. MINECO PID2020-114244RB-100), by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union in the framework of the ERDF Operational Program of Catalonia 2014-2020 (ref. 001-P-001643 Looming Factory) and by the DGR of Generalitat de Catalunya (SAC group ref. 2017/SGR/482).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

An LMI–based heuristic algorithm for vertex reduction in LPV systems

The linear parameter varying (LPV) approach has proved to be suitable for controlling many non-linear systems. However, for those which are highly non-linear and complex, the number of scheduling variables increases rapidly. This fact makes the LPV controller implementation not feasible for many real systems due to memory constraints and computational burden. This paper considers the problem of reducing the total number of LPV controller gains by determining a heuristic methodology that combines two vertices of a polytopic LPV model such that the same gain can be used in both vertices. The proposed algorithm, based on the use of the Gershgorin circles, provides a combinability ranking for the different vertex pairs, which helps in solving the reduction problem in fewer attempts. Simulation examples are provided in order to illustrate the main characteristics of the proposed approach.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version