AN OBSERVER PARAMETERIZATION APPROACH TO ACTIVE FAULT DIAGNOSIS WITH APPLICATIONS TO A DRAG RACING VEHICLE

An active fault diagnosis method for additive, parametric or multiplicative faults is proposed. It is assumed that the system considered is controlled by an observer based controller. The method is then based on a number of alternate observers, each designed to be sensitive to one or more faults. Periodically, the observer part of the controller is changed into the sequence of fault sensitive observers. This is done in a way that guarantees continuity of transition and global stability using a recent result on observer parameterization. The proposed active fault diagnosis method distinguishes itself from the existing literature in terms of not relying on an exogenous excitation signal. An illustrative example based on a drag racing vehicle is given.