Development of Accommodation System for Faults in Thrusters of Underwater Robots

Abstract

The article discusses a solution to the problem of increasing the reliability of operation of underwater robots through the use of accommodation systems that compensate for the consequences of faults that appear in the thrusters. The following types of faults were considered: 1) a fault in the rotation speed sensor of thruster, causing error in its readings; 2) overheating of the motor or short-circuiting of several turns of the winding of its armature circuit, causing a change in the value of electrical resistance; 3) the appearance of an unknown external torque effect on the engine shaft, including when winding plants on the propeller. A new method for constructing accommodation systems is proposed, which contains three stages. At the first, the detection of emerging faults is carried out using the bank of diagnostic observers. Each observer is synthesized according to a special procedure in such a way that the residual formed by it is sensitive to the appearance of various combinations of possible faults. This allows to detect each specific fault. At the second stage, the values of sensor errors and deviations of the parameters of the thruster from their nominal values are estimated by additional variable structure observers. At the third stage, additional control signals for robot’s thrusters are formed. They ensure the stabilization of dynamic properties and quality indicators of thrusters in the event of faults. The results of mathematical modeling are presented, which have confirmed the operability and high efficiency of the synthesized accommodation system.