Sensor fusion and fault diagnosticsin non-linear dynamical systems.

Abstract: Sensors are highly essential components in most modern control systems and are used in increasingly complex ways to improve system precision and reliability. Since they are generally susceptible to faults it is common to perform on-line fault diagnostics on sensor data to verify nominal behavior. This is especially important for safety critical systems where it can be imperative to identify, and react to, a fault before it increases in severity. An example of such a safety critical system is the propulsion control of a vehicle. In this thesis, three different model-based methods for Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI) are developed and tested with the aim of detecting and isolating sensor faults in the powertrain of an electric, center articulated, four-wheel-drive vehicle. First, kinematic models are derived that combine sensor data from all sensors related to propulsion. Second, the kinematic models are implemented in system observers to produce fault sensitive zero-mean residuals. Finally, fault isolation algorithms are derived, which detect and indicate different types of faults via evaluation of the observer residuals. The results show that all FDI methods can detect and isolate stochastic faults with high certainty, but that offset-type faults are hard to distinguish from modeling errors and are therefore easily attenuated by the system observers. Faults in accelerometer sensors need extra measures to be detectable, owing to the environment where the vehicle is typically operated. A nonlinear system model shows good conformity to the vehicle system, lending confidence to its further use as a driver for propulsion control.