Output-Feedback Control of Nonlinear Systems using Control Contraction Metrics and Convex Optimization

Control contraction metrics (CCMs) are a new approach to nonlinear control design based on contraction theory. The resulting design problems are expressed as pointwise linear matrix inequalities and are and well-suited to solution via convex optimization. In this paper, we extend the theory on CCMs by showing that a pair of "dual" observer and controller problems can be solved using pointwise linear matrix inequalities, and that when a solution exists a separation principle holds. That is, a stabilizing output-feedback controller can be found. The procedure is demonstrated using a benchmark problem of nonlinear control: the Moore-Greitzer jet engine compressor model.Comment: Conference submissio

Nonlinear discrete-time systems with delayed control: a reduction

In this work, the notion of reduction is introduced for discrete-time nonlinear input-delayed systems. The retarded dynamics is reduced to a new system which is free of delays and equivalent (in terms of stabilizability) to the original one. Different stabilizing strategies are proposed over the reduced model. Connections with existing predictor-based methods are discussed. The methodology is also worked out over particular classes of time-delay systems as sampled-data dynamics affected by an entire input delay

On the Method of Interconnection and Damping Assignment Passivity-Based Control for the Stabilization of Mechanical Systems

Interconnection and damping assignment passivity-based control (IDA-PBC) is an excellent method to stabilize mechanical systems in the Hamiltonian formalism. In this paper, several improvements are made on the IDA-PBC method. The skew-symmetric interconnection submatrix in the conventional form of IDA-PBC is shown to have some redundancy for systems with the number of degrees of freedom greater than two, containing unnecessary components that do not contribute to the dynamics. To completely remove this redundancy, the use of quadratic gyroscopic forces is proposed in place of the skew-symmetric interconnection submatrix. Reduction of the number of matching partial differential equations in IDA-PBC and simplification of the structure of the matching partial differential equations are achieved by eliminating the gyroscopic force from the matching partial differential equations. In addition, easily verifiable criteria are provided for Lyapunov/exponential stabilizability by IDA-PBC for all linear controlled Hamiltonian systems with arbitrary degrees of underactuation and for all nonlinear controlled Hamiltonian systems with one degree of underactuation. A general design procedure for IDA-PBC is given and illustrated with examples. The duality of the new IDA-PBC method to the method of controlled Lagrangians is discussed. This paper renders the IDA-PBC method as powerful as the controlled Lagrangian method

Dynamics and control of a class of underactuated mechanical systems

This paper presents a theoretical framework for the dynamics and control of underactuated mechanical systems, defined as systems with fewer inputs than degrees of freedom. Control system formulation of underactuated mechanical systems is addressed and a class of underactuated systems characterized by nonintegrable dynamics relations is identified. Controllability and stabilizability results are derived for this class of underactuated systems. Examples are included to illustrate the results; these examples are of underactuated mechanical systems that are not linearly controllable or smoothly stabilizable

A family of asymptotically stable control laws for flexible robots based on a passivity approach

A general family of asymptotically stabilizing control laws is introduced for a class of nonlinear Hamiltonian systems. The inherent passivity property of this class of systems and the Passivity Theorem are used to show the closed-loop input/output stability which is then related to the internal state space stability through the stabilizability and detectability condition. Applications of these results include fully actuated robots, flexible joint robots, and robots with link flexibility

On Observer-Based Control of Nonlinear Systems

Filtering and reconstruction of signals play a fundamental role in modern signal processing, telecommunications, and control theory and are used in numerous applications. The feedback principle is an important concept in control theory. Many different control strategies are based on the assumption that all internal states of the control object are available for feedback. In most cases, however, only a few of the states or some functions of the states can be measured. This circumstance raises the need for techniques, which makes it possible not only to estimate states, but also to derive control laws that guarantee stability when using the estimated states instead of the true ones. For linear systems, the separation principle assures stability for the use of converging state estimates in a stabilizing state feedback control law. In general, however, the combination of separately designed state observers and state feedback controllers does not preserve performance, robustness, or even stability of each of the separate designs. In this thesis, the problems of observer design and observer-based control for nonlinear systems are addressed. The deterministic continuous-time systems have been in focus. Stability analysis related to the Positive Real Lemma with relevance for output feedback control is presented. Separation results for a class of nonholonomic nonlinear systems, where the combination of independently designed observers and state-feedback controllers assures stability in the output tracking problem are shown. In addition, a generalization to the observer-backstepping method where the controller is designed with respect to estimated states, taking into account the effects of the estimation errors, is presented. Velocity observers with application to ship dynamics and mechanical manipulators are also presented

Energy-Balance PBC of nonlinear dynamics under sampling and delays

The paper provides a new class of passivity-based controllers (PBCs) for stabilizing sampled-data input-delayed dynamics at a desired equilibrium via energy-balancing (EB) and reduction. Given a nonlinear dynamics under piecewise constant and retarded input, we first exhibit a new dynamics (the reduced dynamics) that is free of delays and equivalent to the original one. Accordingly, we design the digital controller assigning a suitable energetic behaviour to the reduced delay-free model with a stable target equilibrium. Then, it is proved that such a controller solves the EB-PBC problem on the original retarded system. The results are illustrated over a simple mechanical system