An easy to apply methodology for fault detection and isolation in linear systems

Although the fault detection and isolation problem has been there for over three decades and many solutions using various approaches has been proposed, simpler and feasible methods to quickly and efficiently solve this problem are still valuable. In this paper, a very easy to implement method to solve the fault detection and isolation problem for linear systems is proposed. Experimental result using the three-tank system, commonly used as a benchmark, shows the feasibility of the proposed method. The technique is based on an unusual application of a long standing result of the geometric control theory for linear systems, initially proposed for the disturbance decoupling problem. Nevertheless it avoids the involved calculations that are usual in geometric-based algorithms.