Disturbance rejection for nonlinear uncertain systems with output measurement errors: Application to a helicopter model

As a virtual sensor, disturbance observer provides an alternative approach to reconstruct lumped disturbances (including external disturbances and system uncertainties) based upon system states/outputs measured by physical sensors. Not surprisingly, measurement errors bring adverse effects on the control performance and even the stability of the closed-loop system. Toward this end, this paper investigates the problem of disturbance observer based control for a class of disturbed uncertain nonlinear systems in the presence of unknown output measurement errors. Instead of inheriting from the estimation-error-driven structure of Luenberger type observer, the proposed disturbance observer only explicitly uses the control input. It has been proved that the proposed method endows the closed-loop system with strong robustness against output measurement errors and system uncertainties. With rigorous analysis under the semiglobal stability criterion, the guideline of gain choice based upon the proposed structure is provided. To better demonstrate feature and validity of the proposed method, numerical simulation and comparative experiments of a helicopter model are implemented

Performance Guarantee of a Class of Continuous LPV System with Restricted-Model-Based Control

This paper considers the problem of the robust stabilisation of a class of continuous Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) systems under specifications. In order to guarantee the stabilisation of the plant with very large parameter uncertainties or variations, an output derivative estimation controller is considered. The design of such controller that guarantee desired  induced gain performance is examined. Furthermore, a simple procedure for achieving the  norm performance is proved for any all-poles single-input/single-output second order plant. The proof of stability is based on the polytopic representation of the closed loop under Lyapunov conditions and system transformations. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified via a numerical example

Derivative-free Kalman Filter-based Control of Nonlinear Systems with Application to Transfemoral Prostheses

Derivative-free Kalman filtering (DKF) for estimation-based control of a special class of nonlinear systems is presented. The method includes a standard Kalman filter for the estimation of both states and unknown inputs, and a nonlinear system that is transformed to controllable canonical state space form through feedback linearization (FL). A direct current (DC) motor with an input torque that is a nonlinear function of the state is considered as a case study for a nonlinear single-input-single-output (SISO) system. A three degree-of-freedom (DOF) robot / prosthesis system, which includes a robot that emulates human hip and thigh motion and a powered (active) transfemoral prosthesis disturbed by ground reaction force (GRF), is considered as a case study for a nonlinear multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) system. A PD/PI control term is used to compensate for the unknown GRF. Simulation results show that FL can compensate for the system\u27s nonlinearities through a virtual control term, in contrast to Taylor series linearization, which is only a first-order linearization method. FL improves estimation performance relative to the extended Kalman filter, and in some cases improves the initial condition region of attraction as well. A stability analysis of the DKF-based control method, considering both estimation and unknown input compensation, is also presented. The error dynamics are studied in both frequency and time domains. The derivative of the unknown input plays a key role in the error dynamics and is the primary limiting factor of the closed-loop estimation-based control system stability. It is shown that in realistic systems the derivative of the unknown input is the primary determinant of the region of convergence. It is shown that the tracking error asymptotically converges to the derivative of the unknown input

Observer based active fault tolerant control of descriptor systems

The active fault tolerant control (AFTC) uses the information provided by fault detection and fault diagnosis (FDD) or fault estimation (FE) systems offering an opportunity to improve the safety, reliability and survivability for complex modern systems. However, in the majority of the literature the roles of FDD/FE and reconfigurable control are described as separate design issues often using a standard state space (i.e. non-descriptor) system model approach. These separate FDD/FE and reconfigurable control designs may not achieve desired stability and robustness performance when combined within a closed-loop system.This work describes a new approach to the integration of FE and fault compensation as a form of AFTC within the context of a descriptor system rather than standard state space system. The proposed descriptor system approach has an integrated controller and observer design strategy offering better design flexibility compared with the equivalent approach using a standard state space system. An extended state observer (ESO) is developed to achieve state and fault estimation based on a joint linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach to pole-placement and H∞ optimization to minimize the effects of bounded exogenous disturbance and modelling uncertainty. A novel proportional derivative (PD)-ESO is introduced to achieve enhanced estimation performance, making use of the additional derivative gain. The proposed approaches are evaluated using a common numerical example adapted from the recent literature and the simulation results demonstrate clearly the feasibility and power of the integrated estimation and control AFTC strategy. The proposed AFTC design strategy is extended to an LPV descriptor system framework as a way of dealing with the robustness and stability of the system with bounded parameter variations arising from the non-linear system, where a numerical example demonstrates the feasibility of the use of the PD-ESO for FE and compensation integrated within the AFTC system.A non-linear offshore wind turbine benchmark system is studied as an application of the proposed design strategy. The proposed AFTC scheme uses the existing industry standard wind turbine generator angular speed reference control system as a “baseline” control within the AFTC scheme. The simulation results demonstrate the added value of the new AFTC system in terms of good fault tolerance properties, compared with the existing baseline system

Adaptive Estimation for Uncertain Nonlinear Systems with Measurement Noise: A Sliding-Mode Observer Approach

International audienceThis paper deals with the problem of adaptive estimation, i.e. the simultaneous estimation of the state and time-varying parameters, in the presence of measurement noise and state disturbances, for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems. An adap-tive observer is proposed based on a nonlinear time-varying parameter identification algorithm and a sliding-mode observer. The nonlinear time-varying parameter identification algorithm provides a fixed-time rate of convergence, to a neighborhood of the origin, while the sliding-mode observer ensures ultimate boundedness for the state estimation error attenuating the effects of the external disturbances. Linear matrix inequalities are provided for the synthesis of the adaptive observer while the convergence proofs are given based on the Lyapunov and Input-to-State Stability theory. Finally, some simulation results show the feasibility of the proposed approach

Sliding Mode Based Dynamic State Estimation for Synchronous Generators in Power Systems

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IEEE via the DOI in this record This letter deals with the design of a robust sliding mode observer for dynamic state estimation applied to synchronous generators in power systems. Assuming only the frequency deviation of the generator is measured via phasor measurement units, we use a robust sliding mode estimation technique to dynamically reconstruct the rotor angle and the transient voltage. The adopted estimation technique is insensitive to matched bounded uncertainties affecting the dynamics of the synchronous generator. A stability analysis and tuning rules for the observer are also provided. Numerical simulations confirm the validity of the approach

Adaptive Estimation for Uncertain Nonlinear Systems: A Sliding-Mode Observer Approach

International audienceThis paper deals with the problem of adaptive estimation, i.e. the simultaneous estimation of the state and parameters, for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems. A nonlinear adaptive sliding-mode observer is proposed based on a nonlinear parameter estimation algorithm. The nonlinear parameter estimation algorithm provides a rate of convergence faster than exponential while the sliding-mode observer ensures ultimate boundness for the state estimation error attenuating the effects of the external disturbances. Linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) are provided for the synthesis of the adaptive observer and some simulation results show the feasibility of the proposed approach

Nonlinear signal-correction observer and application to UAV navigation

A nonlinear signal-correction observer (NSCO) is presented for signals correction and estimation, which not only can reject the position measurement error, but also the unknown velocity can be estimated, in spite of the existence of large position measurement error and intense stochastic non-Gaussian noise. For this method, the position signal is not required to be bounded. The NSCO is developed for position/acceleration integration, and it is applied to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) navigation: Based on the NSCO, the position and flying velocity of quadrotor UAV are estimated. An experiment is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method