SENSOR FAULT TOLERANT ARCHITECTURE FOR IRRIGATION CANALS

Irrigation and drainage canals are some examples of water conveyance systems spread worldwide. These systems are characterized for the transport phenomena and are usually operated under closed loop control. Typical considered faults are the unmeasured water extraction, gate and sensor fault. The classical cont roller is projected to reject the unmeasured offtakes and can also accommodate the gate fault. The sensor fault is a critical fault as it deceives the controller. As the service is based o n water levels a falsified information compromises service quality. Depending on fault intensity, security issues may arise. Here we propose a sensor fault tolerant architecture to the downstream water level sensor fault. This architecture is based on two components, first the fault is detected and isolated then the estimation intensity is used to correct the nominal referen ce. Based on updating the reference water depth, additional information is passed to the operating controller for sensor fault accommodation. The architecture is independent from the controller design and therefore can be integrated in old irrigation canals.