Optimal reliability design for over-actuated systems based on the MIT rule: Application to an octocopter helicopter testbed

Abbas Chamseddine (1) , Didier Theilliol (2) , Iman Sadeghzadeh (3) , Youmin Zhang (3) , Philippe Weber (2)

1 ETS - Ecole de Technologie Supérieure [Montréal]
2 CRAN - Centre de Recherche en Automatique de Nancy
3 Dept. of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

This paper addresses the problem of optimal reliability in over-actuated systems. Overloading an actuator decreases its overall lifetime and reduces its average performance over a long time. Therefore, performance and reliability are two conflicting requirements. While appropriate reliability is related to average loads, good performance is related to fast response and sufficient loads generated by actuators. Actuator redundancy allows us to address both performance and reliability at the same time by properly allocating desired loads among redundant actuators. The main contribution of this paper is the on-line optimization of the overall plant reliability according to performance objective using an MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) rule-based method. The effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated through an experimental application to an octocopter helicopter testbed.

Mots clés: Reliability; Over-actuated systems; Series-parallel systems; MIT rule; Coaxial octocopter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

Domaines: Automatique / Robotique

Abbas Chamseddine, Didier Theilliol, Iman Sadeghzadeh, Youmin Zhang, Philippe Weber. Optimal reliability design for over-actuated systems based on the MIT rule: Application to an octocopter helicopter testbed. Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 2014, 132, pp.196-206. ⟨10.1016/j.ress.2014.07.013⟩. ⟨hal-01059396⟩