The realization of modern systems subjected to automatic control, such as aircraft, automobiles, satellites, rocket launchers, cargo and military ships, and so forth; increasingly assume, within its very set of requirements, the task of providing better dependability, i.e.: safety, reliability, and availability altogether.
Towards this demand, fault-tolerant control greatly meets such growing demand of dependability, by its ability of recognizing the occurrence of potentially hazardous/hazardous faults within the overall (closed-loop) system, and by taking remedial action whenever necessary/mandatory. The process of fault tolerance can be segregated into two fundamental steps: (1) that of fault diagnosis, comprising fault detection-isolation-identification, and, (2) control adjustment/reconfiguration.
This paper focuses on the second step, of control adjustment/reconfiguration. Firstly, the problem of fault tolerant control is put, and the importance of proper fault detection-isolation-identification is briefly explained. Secondly, a survey of methods available is performed, in order to set ground of potential uses in aerospace and/or automotive applications, and, to clarify the limitations the studied approaches might present. Thirdly, a set of conclusions is presented, so future work, either practical implementation or future research, can be properly addressed