Reliable H∞ control of discrete-time systems against random intermittent faults

A passive fault-tolerant control strategy is proposed for systems subject to a novel kind of intermittent fault, which is described by a Bernoulli distributed random variable. Three cases of fault location are considered, namely, sensor fault, actuator fault, and both sensor and actuator faults. The dynamic feedback controllers are designed not only to stabilise the fault-free system, but also to guarantee an acceptable performance of the faulty system. The robust H∞ performance index is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme. In terms of linear matrix inequality, the sufficient conditions of the existence of controllers are given. An illustrative example indicates the effectiveness of the proposed fault-tolerant control method.