A New Fault Detection Scheme for Networked Control Systems Subject to Packet Dropout: A Quadrotor Application

This paper considers the problem of attitude sensor fault diagnosis in a quadrotor helicopter. We propose a novel residual generation and evaluation strategy for a Networked control system, which is described by linear time variant systems. In order to enhance robustness to network-induced delay, packet dropout in the controller-to-actuator link as well as sensitivity to unknown input and sensor faults, a parity relation based residual generator and evaluator is proposed. The proposed method is assessed on a mini-helicopter quadrotor prototype to validate the theoretical findings. Simulation results demonstrate the accuracy which can be provided for sensor fault detection by parity relations approach in simultaneous presence of delay and packet dropout. Presence of communication network in the control loop introduces several constraints such as network-induced delay and packet dropout which all might be potential sources of poor performance. Our proposed design is relevant, especially because of both of these difficulties are simultaneously considered in the conception of residual generation and evaluation module and because of its simplicity.