Actuator and sensor failure detection using direct approach

A novel real-time actuator failure detection algorithm is developed in this paper. Actuator fails when the input to the structure is different from the commanded one. Previous research has shown that one error function can be formulated for each actuator through interaction matrix method. For output without noise, non-zero values in the actuator functions indicate the instant failure of the actuator regardless the working status of other actuators. In this paper, it is further demonstrated that the actuator's error function coefficients will be directly calculated from the healthy input of the examined actuator and all outputs. Hence, the need for structural information is no longer needed. This approach is termed as direct method. Experimental results from a NASA eight bay truss show the successful application of the direct method for isolating and identifying the real-time actuator failure. Further, it is shown that the developed method can be used for real-time sensor failure detection.