A Fault-Tolerant Control Scheme for Fixed-Wing UAVs with Flight Envelope Integration

Abstract

Fault-tolerant control is currently the most important step towards increased autonomy for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). In this work, we consider actuator and airframe faults in fixed-wing UAVs and show that an online Flight Envelope (FE) calculation can interpret their effect on the achievable trim trajectories. Subsequently, we design a fully integrated control scheme with a RRT-based planner and 3 Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (MPC) layers. The FE is provided at each control layer with the beneficial result that non-trimmable, unstable trajectories are avoided. Results from high-fidelity simulations are provided. © 2020 IEEE.