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

欧盟和上议院最近关于无人机民用的报告强调了无人机应用于民用和商业应用的例子，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和谷歌等知名公司正在认真考虑和测试小型无人机的送货服务。尽管小型无人机对民用生活和商业实践具有巨大的潜在影响，但报告的无人机相关事件(例如与桥梁相撞、与大型客机险些相撞以及运动员受伤)一直是全球监管机构的主要担忧。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造成的，但也引起了人们对无人机安全的严重关切，特别是考虑到大量民用和商用无人机在人口稠密的地区自主飞行。因此，迫切需要开发能够补偿故障和故障的控制技术，并使自动无人机能够安全运行。事实上，预计小型无人机将在载人飞机同行之前采用和实施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要。因此，该项目将：(1)帮助提高小型多旋翼无人机在飞行中发生故障和故障时的安全性、弹性和生存能力，以及(2)弥合滑模控制理论和应用之间的差距，从而鼓励在工业，特别是航空航天中采用滑模控制。飞行控制系统将为商业和民用应用的小型、高度冗余的无人机开发。一个弹性控制系统，通常被称为容错控制(FTC)，将基于滑模控制(SMC)方案来构建。容错方案首先将使用本项目中开发的模拟工具模拟真实的故障/故障，然后对高度冗余的无人机进行硬件实施和严格评估。该提案的一个重要方面是与布里斯托尔机器人实验室(BRL)和蓝熊系统研究有限公司(BBSR)的合作。在行业挑战的推动下，在BRL和BBSR的支持下，将开展一项严格的评估和评估活动，以突出项目期间制定的控制计划的成熟。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.