An architecture for fault detection and isolation based on fuzzy methods

Model-based fault detection and isolation (FDI) is an approach with increasing attention in the academic and industrial fields, due to economical and safety related matters. In FDI, the discrepancies between system outputs and model outputs are called residuals, and are used to detect and isolate faults. This paper proposes a model-based architecture for fault detection and isolation based on fuzzy methods. Fuzzy modeling is used to derive nonlinear models for the process running in normal operation and for each fault. When a fault occurs, fault detection is performed using the residuals. Then, the faulty fuzzy models are used to isolate a fault. The FDI architecture proposed in this paper uses a fuzzy decision making approach to isolate faults, which is based on the analysis of the residuals. Fuzzy decision factors are derived to isolate faults. An industrial valve simulator is used to obtain several abrupt and incipient faults, which are some of the possible faults in the real system. The proposed fuzzy FDI architecture was able to detect and isolate the simulated abrupt and incipient faults. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.