Design of Neural Network-Based Multi-Fault Tolerant Control System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Actuator failure seriously threatens the flight safety of unmanned helicopters. Considering the problem of multiple faults such as actuator bias and failure in unmanned helicopters, a composite fault-tolerant flight control algorithm is proposed. For actuator bias fault, a nonlinear fault observer is designed to estimate it in real time; for actuator failure fault, a same-dimensional auxiliary system is constructed and processed by neural network technology. The composite fault-tolerant flight controller of the unmanned helicopter is designed by backstepping method, and the Lyapunov stability theory is used to prove that the error signals of the closed-loop system are bounded and convergent. Simulation results show that the proposed control algorithm can improve the fault tolerance of the unmanned helicopter when multiple actuator faults occur, ensuring its safe flight.