Indirect adaptive fuzzy fault-tolerant tracking control for MIMO nonlinear systems with actuator and sensor failures

In this paper, an active fuzzy fault tolerant tracking control (AFFTTC) scheme is developed for a class of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) unknown nonlinear systems in the presence of unknown actuator faults, sensor failures and external disturbance. The developed control scheme deals with four kinds of faults for both sensors and actuators. The bias, drift, and loss of accuracy additive faults are considered along with the loss of effectiveness multiplicative fault. A fuzzy adaptive controller based on back-stepping design is developed to deal with actuator failures and unknown system dynamics. However, an additional robust control term is added to deal with sensor faults, approximation errors, and external disturbances. Lyapunov theory is used to prove the stability of the closed loop system. Numerical simulations on a quadrotor are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. •Novel active fuzzy fault tolerant tracking control (AFFTTC) is proposed.•MIMO unknown nonlinear systems with sensors and actuators failures.•Fuzzy back-stepping technics is used.•Quadrotor-helicopter Attitude control.•Lyapunov theory for stability analysis.