A sliding mode observer-based strategy for fault detection, isolation, and estimation in a class of Lipschitz nonlinear systems

This article investigates the design and application of a sliding mode observer (SMO) strategy for actuator as well as sensor fault detection, isolation, and estimation (FDIE) problem for a class of uncertain Lipschitz nonlinear systems. Actuator FDIE is addressed by regrouping the system's inputs into a structure suitable for SMO design. Similarly, by filtering the regrouped outputs, a similar system structure can be developed for sensor FDIE problem. Once in the suitable form and under certain assumptions, nonlinear SMOs are proposed for actuator and sensor FDIE. A systematic LMI- based design approach for the proposed SMO is presented. Additionally, the article addresses four problems, namely: (P1) What are the conditions for isolating single and/ or multiple faults? (P2) What is the maximum number of faults that can be isolated simultaneously? (P3) How should one design SMO- based FDI approach in order to achieve multiple fault isolation using as few observers as possible? (P4) How can one estimate the shape of the faults? To solve the above problems, a new concept called fault isolation index (FIX) is proposed for actuator and sensor FDIE. It is proved that fault isolation can only be achieved if FIX does not satisfy 0, and also that the maximum number of faults that can be isolated is equal to FIX. Using the proposed fault isolation strategy and by treating some healthy inputs or outputs as unknown inputs, a systematic FDIE design scheme using a bank of nonlinear SMOs, which provides a solution for the four problems is provided. An example is used to illustrate the proposed ideas. The simulation results show that the proposed FDIE scheme can successfully detect and isolate both slowly and fast- changing actuator faults. It is also shown that accurate estimation of actuator faults can be achieved.