SENSOR FAILURE-DETECTION AND ISOLATION IN FLEXIBLE STRUCTURES USING SYSTEM-REALIZATION REDUNDANCY

Sensor failure detection and isolation for flexible structures is appr oached from a system realization perspective. Instead of using hardwar e or analytical model redundancy, system realization is utilized to pr ovide an experimental based model redundancy. The failure detection an d isolation algorithm utilizes the eigensystem realization algorithm t o determine a minimum-order state-space realization of the structure i n the presence of noisy measurements. The failure detection and isolat ion algorithm utilizes statistical comparisons of successive realizati ons to detect and isolate the failed sensor component. Because of the nature in which the failure detection and isolation algorithm is formu lated, it is also possible to classify the failure mode of the sensor. Results are presented using both numerically simulated and actual exp erimental data.