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Abstract



Residual Generation Methods for Fault Diagnosis with Automotive Applications


The problem of fault diagnosis consists of detecting and isolating faults present in a system. As technical systems become more and more complex and the demands for safety, reliability and environmental friendliness are rising, fault diagnosis is becoming increasingly important. One example is automotive systems, where fault diagnosis is a necessity for low emissions, high safety, high vehicle uptime, and efficient repair and maintenance.

One approach to fault diagnosis, providing potentially good performance and in which the need for additional hardware is minimal, is model-based fault diagnosis with residuals. A residual is a signal that is zero when the system under diagnosis is fault-free, and non-zero when particular faults are present in the system. Residuals are typically generated by using a mathematical model of the system and measurements from sensors and actuators. This process is referred to as residual generation.

The main contributions in this thesis are two novel methods for residual generation. In both methods, systems described by Differential-Algebraic Equation (DAE) models are considered. Such models appear in a large class of technical systems, for example automotive systems. The first method consider observer-based residual generation for linear DAE-models. This method places no restrictions on the model, such as e.g. observability or regularity, in comparison with other previous methods. If the faults of interest can be detected in the system, the output from the design method is a residual generator, in state-space form, that is sensitive to the faults of interest. The method is iterative and relies on constant matrix operations, such as e.g. null-space calculations and equivalence transformations.

In the second method, non-linear DAE-models are considered. The proposed method belongs to a class of methods, in this thesis referred to as sequential residual generation, which has shown to be successful for real applications. This method enables simultaneous use of integral and derivative causality, and is able to handle equation sets corresponding to algebraic and differential loops in a systematic manner. It relies on a formal framework for computing unknown variables in the model according to a computation sequence, in which the analytical properties of the equations in the model as well as the available tools for equation solving are taken into account. The method is successfully applied to complex models of an automotive diesel engine and a hydraulic braking system.

Carl Svärd

2009

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