Designing a robust controller for a high redundancy actuator using genetic algorithms

The High Redundancy Actuator (HRA) project deals with the construction of an actuator using many redundant actuation elements. If one element fails, this changes the behaviour slightly, but the system still remains operation. A key challenge in this project is to design a passive fault tolerant controller that maintains the required performance in the presence of faults. This paper shows how to achieve this with structurally simple controllers, by optimising the parameters using a genetic algorithm.