Model-free reconfiguration mechanism for fault tolerance

The problem of fault tolerant control is studied from the behavioral point of view. In this mathematical framework, the concept of interconnection among the variables describing the system is a key point. The problem is that the behavior we intend to control is not known. Therefore, we are interested in designing a fault accommodation scheme for an unknown behavior through an appropriate behavioral interconnection. Here we deal simply with the trajectories that are generated by the system in real time. These trajectories determine the behavior of a system in various (faulty/healthy) modes. Based on the desired interconnected behavior, only the trajectories that obey certain laws are selected. These laws, representing the desired behavior, can indeed be achieved by a regular interconnection. Thus, when the trajectories do not belong to a certain desired behavior, it is considered to be due to the occurrence of a fault in the system. The vantage point is that the fault tolerant control problem now becomes completely a model-free scheme. Moreover, no explicit fault diagnosis module is required in our approach. The proposed fault tolerance mechanism is illustrated on an aircraft during the landing phase.