A Novel Approach to Sensor Fault Detection and Isolation in Automotive Systems

A technique for the systematic design of fault-tolerant automatic measurement systems was proposed by the authors in a previous paper. It is based on the use of “analytical redundancy” relationships concerning both the measurement system and the monitored devices. In this paper, the technique was applied to the handling of sensors and actuators used for the electronic control of internal combustion engines. This represents the preliminary step toward the realisation of a fault tolerant measurement and control system for the automotive systems. The paper describes in detail the realised diagnostic scheme and its performance evaluated on a number of simulated and real tests carried out in normal and faulty operating conditions. The considered test bed allowed the proposed approach to be characterised in terms of fault sensitivity and selectivity.