As a result of the development of modern vehicles, even higher accuracy standards are demanded. As known, Inertial Navigation Systems have an intrinsic increasing error which is the main reason of using integrating navigation systems, where some other sources of measurements are utilized, such as barometric altimeter due to its high accuracy in short times of interval. Using a Robust Kalman Filter (RKF), error measurements are absorbed when a Fault Tolerant Altimeter is implemented. During simulations, in order to test the Nonlinear RKF algorithm, two kind of measurement malfunction scenarios have been taken into consideration; continuous bias and measurement noise increment. Under the light of the results, some recommendations are proposed when integrated altimeters are used.

Diode neutral point clamped (NPC) three-level converters have been widely used in recent years. Aiming at the problems of the high device failure rate and unstable neutral point potential of NPC three-level converters, an NPC three-level circuit with fourth bridge arm redundancy is proposed based on the traditional NPC three-level converter. The redundant fourth bridge arm is used to realize the function of stabilizing voltage when there is no fault and replacing the fault half-bridge arm to maintain the continuous operation of the converter when there is a fault. By analyzing the working principle of space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) and the power loss of the switch, it is of particular significance to the design and control of NPC three-level converters in the future. Matlab/Simulink verifies the feasibility of the fault-tolerant circuit structure.

In nuclear facilities, the reading of the sensors is very important in the assessments of the system state. The existence of an abnormal state could be caused by a failure in the sensor itself instead of a failure in the system. So, being unable to identify the main cause of the “abnormal state” and take proper actions may end in unnecessary shutdown for the nuclear facility that may have expensive economic consequences. That is why, it is extremely important for a supervision and control system to identify the case where the failure in the sensor is the main cause for the existence of an abnormal state. In this paper, a system based on a wireless sensor network is proposed to monitor the radiation levels around and inside a nuclear facility. A new approach for validating the sensor readings is proposed and investigated using the Castalia simulator.

The paper presents the result of an evaluation of the performance of different message broker system configurations, which lead to the construction of the specific architecture guidelines for such systems. The examples are provided for an exemplary middleware messaging server software - RabbitMQ, set in high availability - enabling and redundant configurations. Rabbit MQ is a message queuing system realizing the middleware for distributed systems that implements the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol. The scalability and high availability design issues are discussed and the possible cluster topologies and their impact is presented. Since HA and performance scalability requirements are in conflict, scenarios for using clustered RabbitMQ nodes and mirrored queues are interesting and have to be considered with specific workloads and requirements in mind. The results of performance measurements for some topologies are also reported in this article.

This paper presents a fault-tolerant control scheme for a 2 DOF helicopter. The 2 DOF helicopter is a higher-order multi-input multi-output system featuring non-linearity, cross-coupling, and unstable behaviour. The impact of sensor, actuator, and component faults on such highly complex systems is enormous. This work employs sliding mode control, which is based on reaching and super-twisting laws, to handle the problem of fault control. Simulation tests are carried out to show the effectiveness of the algorithms. Various performance metrics are analyzed and the results show SMC based on super-twisting law provides better control with less chattering. The stability of the closed-loop system is mathematically assured, in the presence of faults, which is a key contribution of this research.

The neutral point clamped (NPC) three-level grid-tied converter is the key equipment connecting renewable energy and power grids. The current sensor fault caused by harsh environment may lead to the split of renewable energy. The existing sensor fault-tolerant methods will reduce the modulation ratio index of the converter system. To ensure continuous operation of the converter system and improve the modulation index, a model predictive control method based on reconstructed current is proposed in this paper. According to the relationship between fault phase current and a voltage vector, the original voltage vector is combined and classified. To maintain the stable operation of the converter and improve the utilization rate of DC voltage, two kinds of fault phase current are reconstructed with DC current, normal phase current and predicted current, respectively. Based on reconstructed three-phase current, a current predictive control model is designed, and a model predictive control method is proposed. The proposed method selects the optimal voltage vector with the cost function and reduces time delay with the current reconstruction sector. The simulation and experimental results showthat the proposed strategy can keep the NPC converter running stably with one AC sensor, and the modulation index is increased from 57.7% to 100%.

Three-level T-type inverters have lower total harmonic distortion in output voltage, higher power density and lower voltage stress of power switches compared with conventional two-level inverters and have been widely used in applications with a wide-power range. Reliability improvement is particularly important for the T-type inverters because of the increased number of power switches and high system complexity. This paper proposes a fault-tolerant topology, which is constructed by adding a redundant leg including halfbridge switches and neutral-point switches connected between the DC bus capacitors and the DC-link midpoint of the conventional T-type inverter. In addition, an after-fault control strategy is proposed based on the results of a fault diagnosis method using bridge voltage. The fault-tolerant control of the open-circuit fault of the power switches and the phase-leg fault can both be achieved by the proposed method. Experimental results are given to verify that the proposed fault-tolerant three-level T-type inverter can output the full voltage level and power during the fault-tolerant operation based on the proposed control strategy.

The iterative learning fault-tolerant control strategies with non-strict repetitive initial state disturbances are studied for the linear discrete networked control systems (NCSs) and the nonlinear discrete NCSs. In order to reduce the influence of the initial state disturbance in iteration, for the linear NCSs, considering the external disturbance and actuator failure, the iterative learning fault-tolerant control strategy with impulse function is proposed. For the nonlinear NCSs, the external disturbance, packet loss and actuator failure are considered, the iterative learning fault-tolerant control strategy with random Bernoulli sequence is provided. Finally, the proposed control strategies are used for simulation research for the linear NCSs and the nonlinear NCSs. The results show that both strategies can reduce the influence of the initial state disturbance on the tracking effect, which verifies the effectiveness of the given method.

Modern induction motor (IM) drives with a higher degree of safety should be equipped with fault-tolerant control (FTC) solutions. Current sensor (CS) failures constitute a serious problem in systems using vector control strategies for IMs because these methods require state variable reconstruction, which is usually based on the IM mathematical model and stator current measurement. This article presents an analysis of the operation of the direct torque control (DTC) for IM drive with stator current reconstruction after CSs damage. These reconstructed currents are used for the stator flux and electromagnetic torque estimation in the DTC with space-vector-modulation (SVM) drive. In this research complete damage to both stator CSs is assumed, and the stator current vector components in the postfault mode are reconstructed based on the DC link voltage of the voltage source inverter (VSI) and angular rotor speed measurements using the so-called virtual current sensor (VCS), based on the IM mathematical model. Numerous simulation and experimental tests results illustrate the behavior of the drive system in different operating conditions. The correctness of the stator current reconstruction is also analyzed taking into account motor parameter uncertainties, especially stator and rotor resistances, which usually are the main parameters that determine the proper operation of the stator flux and torque estimation in the DTC control structure.