Sliding mode observer based incipient sensor fault detection with application to high-speed railway traction device

•The incipient sensor fault detection issue is studied.•A particular sliding mode observer is designed.•Three levels of novel proper adaptive thresholds are proposed.

This paper considers incipient sensor fault detection issue for a class of nonlinear systems with “observer unmatched” uncertainties. A particular fault detection sliding mode observer is designed for the augmented system formed by the original system and incipient sensor faults. The designed parameters are obtained using LMI and line filter techniques to guarantee that the generated residuals are robust to uncertainties and that sliding motion is not destroyed by faults. Then, three levels of novel adaptive thresholds are proposed based on the reduced order sliding mode dynamics, which effectively improve incipient sensor faults detectability. Case study of on the traction system in China Railway High-speed is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed incipient senor faults detection schemes.

Graphical abstract