On-line optimisation of a water-gas shift reactor in the presence of noise

Imperial Users onl

Multi-agent model predictive control for transport phenomena processes

Throughout the last decades, control systems theory has thrived, promoting new areas of development, especially for chemical and biological process engineering. Production processes are becoming more and more complex and researchers, academics and industry professionals dedicate more time in order to keep up-to-date with the increasing complexity and nonlinearity. Developing control architectures and incorporating novel control techniques as a way to overcome optimization problems is the main focus for all people involved. Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) has been one of the main responses from academia for the exponential growth of process complexity and fast growing scale. Prediction algorithms are the response to manage closed-loop stability and optimize results. Adaptation mechanisms are nowadays seen as a natural extension of prediction methodologies in order to tackle uncertainty in distributed parameter systems (DPS), governed by partial differential equations (PDE). Parameters observers and Lyapunov adaptation laws are also tools for the systems in study. Stability and stabilization conditions, being implicitly or explicitly incorporated in the NMPC formulation, by means of pointwise min-norm techniques, are also being used and combined as a way to improve control performance, robustness and reduce computational effort or maintain it low, without degrading control action. With the above assumptions, centralized (or single agent) or decentralized and distributed Model Predictive Control (MPC) architectures (also called multi-agent) have been applied to a series of nonlinear distributed parameters systems with transport phenomena, such as bioreactors, water delivery canals and heat exchangers to show the importance and success of these control techniques

A Hybrid Controller for Stability Robustness, Performance Robustness, and Disturbance Attenuation of a Maglev System

Devices using magnetic levitation (maglev) offer the potential for friction-free, high-speed, and high-precision operation. Applications include frictionless bearings, high-speed ground transportation systems, wafer distribution systems, high-precision positioning stages, and vibration isolation tables. Maglev systems rely on feedback controllers to maintain stable levitation. Designing such feedback controllers is challenging since mathematically the electromagnetic force is nonlinear and there is no local minimum point on the levitating force function. As a result, maglev systems are open-loop unstable. Additionally, maglev systems experience disturbances and system parameter variations (uncertainties) during operation. A successful controller design for maglev system guarantees stability during levitating despite system nonlinearity, and desirable system performance despite disturbances and system uncertainties. This research investigates five controllers that can achieve stable levitation: PD, PID, lead, model reference control, and LQR/LQG. It proposes an acceleration feedback controller (AFC) design that attenuates disturbance on a maglev system with a PD controller. This research proposes three robust controllers, QFT, Hinf , and QFT/Hinf , followed by a novel AFC-enhanced QFT/Hinf (AQH) controller. The AQH controller allows system robustness and disturbance attenuation to be achieved in one controller design. The controller designs are validated through simulations and experiments. In this research, the disturbances are represented by force disturbances on the levitated object, and the system uncertainties are represented by parameter variations. The experiments are conducted on a 1 DOF maglev testbed, with system performance including stability, disturbance rejection, and robustness being evaluated. Experiments show that the tested controllers can maintain stable levitation. Disturbance attenuation is achieved with the AFC. The robust controllers, QFT, Hinf , QFT/ Hinf, and AQH successfully guarantee system robustness. In addition, AQH controller provides the maglev system with a disturbance attenuation feature. The contributions of this research are the design and implementation of the acceleration feedback controller, the QFT/ Hinf , and the AQH controller. Disturbance attenuation and system robustness are achieved with these controllers. The controllers developed in this research are applicable to similar maglev systems

Flexible structure control laboratory development and technology demonstration

An experimental structure is described which was constructed to demonstrate and validate recent emerging technologies in the active control and identification of large flexible space structures. The configuration consists of a large, 20 foot diameter antenna-like flexible structure in the horizontal plane with a gimballed central hub, a flexible feed-boom assembly hanging from the hub, and 12 flexible ribs radiating outward. Fourteen electrodynamic force actuators mounted to the hub and to the individual ribs provide the means to excite the structure and exert control forces. Thirty permanently mounted sensors, including optical encoders and analog induction devices provide measurements of structural response at widely distributed points. An experimental remote optical sensor provides sixteen additional sensing channels. A computer samples the sensors, computes the control updates and sends commands to the actuators in real time, while simultaneously displaying selected outputs on a graphics terminal and saving them in memory. Several control experiments were conducted thus far and are documented. These include implementation of distributed parameter system control, model reference adaptive control, and static shape control. These experiments have demonstrated the successful implementation of state-of-the-art control approaches using actual hardware

Motion control and synchronisation of multi-axis drive systems

Motion control and synchronisation of multi-axis drive system

Modelling and Inverse Problems of Control for Distributed Parameter Systems; Proceedings of IFIP(W.G. 7.2)-IIASA Conference, July 24-28, 1989

The techniques of solving inverse problems that arise in the estimation and control of distributed parameter systems in the face of uncertainty as well as the applications of these to mathematical modelling for problems of applied system analysis (environmental issues, technological processes, biomathematical models, mathematical economy and other fields) are among the major topics of research at the Dynamic Systems Project of the Systems and Decision Sciences (SDS) Program at IIASA. In July 1989 the SDS Program was a coorganizer of a regular IFIP (WG 7.2) conference on Modelling and Inverse Problems of Control for Distributed Parameter Systems that was held at IIASA, and was attended by a number of prominent theorists and practitioners. One of the main purpose of this meeting was to review recent developments and perspectives in this field. The proceedings are presented in this volume

Wireless industrial intelligent controller for a non-linear system

Modern neural network (NN) based control schemes have surmounted many of the limitations found in the traditional control approaches. Nevertheless, these modern control techniques have only recently been introduced for use on high-specification Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and usually at a very high cost in terms of the required software and hardware. This ‗intelligent‘ control in the sector of industrial automation, specifically on standard PLCs thus remains an area of study that is open to further research and development. The research documented in this thesis examined the effectiveness of linear traditional control schemes such as Proportional Integral Derivative (PID), Lead and Lead-Lag control, in comparison to non-linear NN based control schemes when applied on a strongly non-linear platform. To this end, a mechatronic-type balancing system, namely, the Ball-on-Wheel (BOW) system was designed, constructed and modelled. Thereafter various traditional and intelligent controllers were implemented in order to control the system. The BOW platform may be taken to represent any single-input, single-output (SISO) non-linear system in use in the real world. The system makes use of current industrial technology including a standard PLC as the digital computational platform, a servo drive and wireless access for remote control. The results gathered from the research revealed that NN based control schemes (i.e. Pure NN and NN-PID), although comparatively slower in response, have greater advantages over traditional controllers in that they are able to adapt to external system changes as well as system non-linearity through a process of learning. These controllers also reduce the guess work that is usually involved with the traditional control approaches where cumbersome modelling, linearization or manual tuning is required. Furthermore, the research showed that online-learning adaptive traditional controllers such as the NN-PID controller which maintains the best of both the intelligent and traditional controllers may be implemented easily and with minimum expense on standard PLCs

Proceedings of the Workshop on Applications of Distributed System Theory to the Control of Large Space Structures

Two general themes in the control of large space structures are addressed: control theory for distributed parameter systems and distributed control for systems requiring spatially-distributed multipoint sensing and actuation. Topics include modeling and control, stabilization, and estimation and identification

Development of a Robust and Tunable Aircraft Guidance Algorithm

A set of guidance control laws is developed for application to a reduced order dynamic aircraft model. A feedback control formulation utilizing a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) is developed, together with methods for easing the design burden associated with gain tuning. Metrics are developed to assess the stability margin of the controller over the full flight envelope of a notional unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) model. A feedforward control path is then added to the architecture. The performance of the guidance control laws is assessed through time domain step response metrics as well as through execution of a design mission. The thesis closes with a discussion of possible improvements regarding gain optimality and run-time performance of the model

Control Engineering

Control means a speci?c action to reach the desired behavior of a system. In the control of industrial processes generally technological processes, are considered, but control is highly required to keep any physical, chemical, biological, communication, economic, or social process functioning in a desired manner