A reconfigurable flight control system based on the EMMAE method

The ability of the multiple model adaptive estimation method (MMAE) to detect faults based on a predefined hypothesis and the parameter-estimating ability of an extended Kalman filter (EKF) results in an efficient fault detection approach. This extended multiple model adaptive estimation method (EMMAE) has been investigated on a nonlinear model of an aircraft to estimate on-line the state vector of the system and the control surface deflection in case of failed actuators. A supervision module has been designed to enhance the performance of the EMMAE method and to appropriately change settings in a control allocation module. The results show that this reconfigurable flight control system is capable of detecting, isolating, and compensating for actuator faults of various types, without any need to add additional sensors to measure control-surface deflections or to change the flight controller