Observer-based fault-tolerant control for an air-breathing hypersonic vehicle model

This paper focuses on controller and observer design for the longitudinal model of an air-breathing hypersonic vehicle (AHV) subject to actuator faults and limited measurements of the states. The feedback linearization method is firstly employed for a modified AHV model with actuator faults, and dynamic effect caused by the actuator faults on the linearized model is analyzed. Based on full state information, an adaptive controller is designed using the Lyapunov method, which guarantees reference command tracking of the AHV under actuator faults. Next, to estimate the unmeasurable states used in the adaptive controller, a sliding observer is designed based on the sliding control method and the Filippov’s construction of the equivalent dynamics (FCED). Finally, the adaptive controller is combined with the sliding observer to generate the observer-based adaptive controller, which relies only on partial state information. Simulations demonstrate that the observer-based adaptive controller achieves desired tracking performance and good robustness in the presence of actuator faults.