Robust Fault Isolation for Autonomous Coordination in NCS

A recent study shows that a given hierarchical decentralized control system architecture may be suitable for autonomous coordination of fault-tolerant control (FTC) in a network of distributed and interconnected subsystems. This paper focuses on the development of a robust Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI) strategy for this Network Control System (NCS) FTC problem. By using a robust form of the Unknown Input Observer (UIO), the subsystems can be effectively decoupled from each other for diagnostic purposes. The effects of subsystem interactions are removed from the FDI residuals, thus facilitating a powerful way to achieve robust local subsystem FDI. This subsystem isolation forms a part of the decision-making process of the autonomous system coordinator, facilitating a strategy for autonomy in FTC for NCS.