CRUISE: fault tolerant Control for highly Redundant multirotor Unmanned aerIal vehicle using Sliding modEs

欧盟和上议院最近关于民用无人机的报告强调了民用和商业无人机应用的例子，包括搜索和救援，检查和拍摄。事实上，最近的媒体报道突出了亚马逊、DHL和谷歌等知名公司，它们正在认真考虑并测试小型无人机用于送货服务。尽管小型无人机对民用生活和商业行为具有巨大的潜在影响，但报告的无人机相关事件有所增加。（例如，与桥梁碰撞、与大型客机几乎碰撞以及对运动员的伤害）一直是全世界监管者的主要关注。目前，小型无人机的商业用途在英国受到严格限制和监管。一些事故是由于操作员的缺陷而发生的，但引起了对无人机安全的严重关切，特别是当人们考虑到在人口稠密地区存在大量民用和商用无人机自主飞行时。因此，迫切需要开发控制技术，以补偿故障和故障，并使自主无人机安全运行。事实上，预计小型无人机将在有人驾驶飞机之前采用和实施先进的最先进的容错控制方案，部分原因是它们的多功能性和确保民用和商业应用安全的基本需求。因此，该项目将：（1）有助于提高小型多旋翼无人机在飞行中发生故障和失效时的安全性、弹性和生存能力，以及（2）弥合滑模控制理论与应用之间的差距，从而鼓励在工业，特别是航空航天中采用滑模控制。飞行控制系统将为小型、高冗余度的无人机开发，用于商业和民用。一个弹性控制系统，通常被称为容错控制（FTC），将建立基于滑模控制（SMC）计划。容错方案将首先使用本项目开发的仿真工具模拟真实故障/失效，然后在高度冗余的无人机上进行硬件实现和严格评估。本提案的一个重要方面是与布里斯托机器人实验室（BRL）和蓝熊系统研究有限公司（BBSR）的合作。在工业挑战的推动下，在BRL和BBSR的支持下，将开展严格的评估和评价活动，以突出项目期间开发的控制方案的成熟度。通过展示技术准备水平（TRL）的提高，该项目将促进这些技术在工业中的采用。

Recent reports by the EU and House of Lords on the civilian use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have highlighted examples of UAV applications for civil and commercial applications, which include search & rescue, inspection and filming. In fact recent media coverage highlighted prominent companies such as Amazon, DHL and Google which are seriously considering, and testing, small UAVs for delivery services.Despite the huge potential impact of small UAVs on civil life and commercial practices, an increase in reported UAV-related incidents (e.g. a collision with a bridge, near collisions with large passenger aircraft, and injury to an athlete) has been a major concern for regulators worldwide. At present, the commercial use of small UAVs is currently heavily restricted and regulated in the UK. Some incidents occurred due to operator shortcomings, but raise serious concerns about the safety of UAVs, especially when one considers the presence of a large number of civil and commercial UAVs flying autonomously in heavily populated areas. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop control technologies which will compensate for faults and failures, and enable the safe operation of autonomous UAVs. In fact, it is envisaged that small UAVs will embrace and implement advanced state-of-the-art fault tolerant control schemes before their manned aircraft counterparts could, partly due to their versatility and the fundamental need to ensure safety for civil and commercial applications. This project will therefore: (1) help improve safety, resilience and survivability of small multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles in the event of in-flight faults and failures, and (2) bridge the gap between the theory and application of sliding mode control, thus encouraging adoption of sliding mode control in industry, particularly aerospace. Flight control systems will be developed for a small, highly redundant UAV for commercial and civil applications. A resilient control system, typically known as fault tolerant control (FTC), will be built based on sliding mode control (SMC) schemes. The fault tolerant schemes will initially be simulated with realistic faults/failures using a simulation tool developed in this project, then followed by hardware implementation and rigorous evaluation on a highly redundant UAV.An important aspect of this proposal is the partnership with Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) and Blue Bear Systems Research Ltd (BBSR). Driven by industrial challenges and supported by BRL and BBSR, a rigorous assessment and evaluation campaign will be undertaken to highlight the maturation of the control schemes developed during the project. By demonstrating an increase in technology readiness level (TRL), the project will promote the adoption of these technologies in industry.