Abstract
The reconfigurable control systems based on feedback controls are utilized to compensate for damages of actuators in control systems. Such systems have multiple feedback controls and switch them in accordance with the degrees of the failures of the actuators. In order to be able to assess those systems, this paper develops a method to obtain reliabilities of reconfigurable dynamical systems which are interconnected in parallel / series configuration. By calculating reliabilities of interconnected dynamical systems, it is possible to assess many dynamical systems by comparing their reliabilities. Firstly, reliabilities of subsystems are obtained according to the definitions of the failures in terms of robust reliability for each subsystem. Then, the reliability of overall system is calculated from reliabilities of subsystems, using the methodology employed for probabilistic safety assessment. Failure rates of subsystems with feedbacks for reconfiguration change in certain time periods because of the switching of feedback controls. In order to deal with this, combinations of subsystems which compose overall system for each time period are derived by the methodology mentioned above and then integrated to calculate the reliability of overall system for a specific time. An illustrative example shows the validity and details of the proposed method.