Fault detection for partial loss of effectiveness faults of actuators in a quadrotor unmanned helicopter

This paper presents and implements a method to detect actuator faults (loss of effectiveness) for a quadrotor unmanned helicopter (known as the Qball-X4) altitude control. Fault model is presented with the first principle physical modeling method. Mathematical model is further adjusted based on the grey-light-box scheme to adjust the model parameters and reduce model uncertainty of the Qball-X4. The Kalman filter is used for the fault detection and state estimation purpose with integration of a LQ (linear quadratic) technique based controller for controlling the altitude of the Qball-X4. The benefit of using this method is that it is robust to the process and measurement noises. The method is implemented and experimentally tested in the platform of the Qball-X4 helicopter.