Afef Fekih, Ph.D.
Research Projects
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PI,
“Smart Fault Tolerant Control Strategy for Safer Aircraft Systems”,
The ultimate goal of
this project is to design a smart and robust fault tolerant controller (FTC)
for aircraft systems. In the proposed architecture, passive and active approaches
will be merged together for the best achievable performance. The proposed FTC
approach:1) utilizes robust control as the first line
of defense to failures/parameter variations, 2) triggers a reconfigurable
controller in case of severe impairments. Depending on the magnitude of the
failure signature and the impairment severity, one controller will be switched
over. The proposed control strategy can be implemented in Intelligent
flight control system in order to improve the operating characteristics of
aircraft, reduce false alarms and false reconfigurations and increase safety
and reliability.
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Co-PI,
“Aircraft Safety: Control Upset
Management”, NASA-EPSCor-BoR (project originally
awarded to Dr. Chowdhury (Professor, EECE)) (PI: J.L. Aravena, LSU-Baton Rouge,
Co-PIs. K.Zhou, LSU-Baton Rouge, X.R.Li,
The project draws expertise from Louisiana State
University, University of New Orleans and University
of Louisiana at Lafayette and proposes to develop a collaborative effort
with NASA researchers to create technologies that
significantly advance the goals of the Aviation Safety Program (AvSP).
This
project supports the goals of NASA's Single Aircraft Accident Prevention (SAAP) program by addressing the two most important
causes for single airplane failure, namely loss of control and controlled
flight into terrain which, according to FAA statistics, account for more than
50% of fatal accidents worldwide.