Research on Adaptive Fault-Tolerant Control for Manned Lunar Rover

Since the lunar terrain conditions are very hummocky, there is a risk of simultaneous failure of multiple drive motors and steering motors for manned lunar rover throughout the maneuver. An adaptive fault-tolerant control method based on direct yaw-moment control is proposed to ensure that the rover can still drive stably and accomplish the detection mission despite multi-motor failures. The method adopts a hierarchical control architecture, where the upper layer solves the vehicle’s yaw moment demand based on the astronaut’s driving intention and vehicle condition, and the lower layer carries out torque allocation by introducing failure factor to represent the motor failure situation. Meanwhile, the objective function is designed by combining longitudinal drive control, yaw moment control and tire load rate control, and is adjusted by slip rate to restrain tire slip. Through the joint simulation experiments, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified. The results show that the driving stability and vehicle maneuverability are guaranteed even in the event of multi-motor failures.