Fault estimation and fault-tolerant control of autonomous underwater vehicles

This article proposes a method for fault estimation and compensation design for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) when faced with actuator and sensor failures. Firstly, the state space model is established by taking the depth control of AUVs as an example. Intermediate variables are introduced and an intermediate estimator is designed to construct a new augmented error model. Based on this model, the estimator gain is obtained by using Lyapunov stability theory. Subsequently, by utilizing the designed fault estimator, a fault-tolerant controller based on fault compensation is developed to achieve fault compensation for the system. Simulation experiments are conducted on depth control of AUVs. The results demonstrate that the fault estimation and compensation are indeed achieved through the designed fault estimator and compensator when faults occur in the system.