This thesis presents a novel integrated hybrid approach for fault diagnosis (FD) of nonlinear systems; taking advantage of both system's mathematical model and the adaptive nonlinear approximation capability of computational intelligence techniques. Unlike most FD techniques, the proposed solution simultaneously accomplishes fault detection, isolation, and identification (FDII) within a unified diagnostic module. At the core of this solution are a bank of adaptive neural parameter estimators (NPE) and a set of single-parameterized fault models. The NPEs continuously estimate unknown fault parameters (FP) that are indicators of faults in the system. In view of the availability of full-state measurements, two NPE structures, namely series-parallel and parallel, are developed with their exclusive set of desirable attributes. The parallel scheme is extremely robust to measurement noise and possesses a simpler, yet more solid, fault isolation logic. On the contrary, the series-parallel scheme displays short FD delays and is robust to closed-loop system transients due to changes in control commands. Simple neural network architecture and update laws make both schemes suitable for real-time implementations. A fault tolerant observer (FTO) is then designed to extend the FDII schemes to systems with partial-state measurement. The proposed FTO is a neural state estimator that can estimate unmeasured states even in presence of faults. The estimated and the measured states then comprise the inputs to the FDII schemes. Simulation results for FDII of reaction wheels of a 3-axis stabilized satellite in presence of disturbances and noise demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed FDII solution under both full and partial-state measurements
