Sensor Fault Detection in Networked Control Systems Under Disturbances and Communication Imperfections

Abstract This paper addresses the problem of sensor fault detection in Networked Control Systems (NCS) subject to communication imperfections, including time-varying delays and packet dropouts. These network-induced constraints can significantly degrade system performance and hinder timely fault identification. To model the stochastic behaviour of the communication network, Markov chains are used to represent the random nature of delays and packet losses. A fault detection strategy is proposed based on a Lyapunov function framework and Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) techniques. The approach establishes sufficient conditions for fault detectability formulated as LMIs, ensuring robustness against the probabilistic uncertainties of the network. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed method in detecting sensor faults under varying network conditions.