Global Stabilization of High-Order Time-Delay Nonlinear Systems under a Weaker Condition

Under the weaker condition on the system growth, this paper further investigates the problem of global stabilization by state feedback for a class of high-order nonlinear systems with time-varying delays. By skillfully using the homogeneous domination approach, a continuous state feedback controller is successfully designed, which preserves the equilibrium at the origin and guarantees the global asymptotic stability of the resulting closed-loop system. A simulation example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design procedure

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

Mini-Workshop: Adaptive Methods for Control Problems Constrained by Time-Dependent PDEs

Optimization problems constrained by time-dependent PDEs (Partial Differential Equations) are challenging from a computational point of view: even in the simplest case, one needs to solve a system of PDEs coupled globally in time and space for the unknown solutions (the state, the costate and the control of the system). Typical and practically relevant examples are the control of nonlinear heat equations as they appear in laser hardening or the thermic control of flow problems (Boussinesq equations). Specifically for PDEs with a long time horizon, conventional time-stepping methods require an enormous storage of the respective other variables. In contrast, adaptive methods aim at distributing the available degrees of freedom in an a-posteriori-fashion to capture singularities and are, therefore, most promising

Time-Delay Systems

Time delay is very often encountered in various technical systems, such as electric, pneumatic and hydraulic networks, chemical processes, long transmission lines, robotics, etc. The existence of pure time lag, regardless if it is present in the control or/and the state, may cause undesirable system transient response, or even instability. Consequently, the problem of controllability, observability, robustness, optimization, adaptive control, pole placement and particularly stability and robustness stabilization for this class of systems, has been one of the main interests for many scientists and researchers during the last five decades

Advanced Computational-Effective Control and Observation Schemes for Constrained Nonlinear Systems

Constraints are one of the most common challenges that must be faced in control systems design. The sources of constraints in engineering applications are several, ranging from actuator saturations to safety restrictions, from imposed operating conditions to trajectory limitations. Their presence cannot be avoided, and their importance grows even more in high performance or hazardous applications. As a consequence, a common strategy to mitigate their negative effect is to oversize the components. This conservative choice could be largely avoided if the controller was designed taking all limitations into account. Similarly, neglecting the constraints in system estimation often leads to suboptimal solutions, which in turn may negatively affect the control effectiveness. Therefore, with the idea of taking a step further towards reliable and sustainable engineering solutions, based on more conscious use of the plants' dynamics, we decide to address in this thesis two fundamental challenges related to constrained control and observation. In the first part of this work, we consider the control of uncertain nonlinear systems with input and state constraints, for which a general approach remains elusive. In this context, we propose a novel closed-form solution based on Explicit Reference Governors and Barrier Lyapunov Functions. Notably, it is shown that adaptive strategies can be embedded in the constrained controller design, thus handling parametric uncertainties that often hinder the resulting performance of constraint-aware techniques. The second part of the thesis deals with the global observation of dynamical systems subject to topological constraints, such as those evolving on Lie groups or homogeneous spaces. Here, general observability analysis tools are overviewed, and the problem of sensorless control of permanent magnets electrical machines is presented as a case of study. Through simulation and experimental results, we demonstrate that the proposed formalism leads to high control performance and simple implementation in embedded digital controllers

Adaptive Control

Adaptive control has been a remarkable field for industrial and academic research since 1950s. Since more and more adaptive algorithms are applied in various control applications, it is becoming very important for practical implementation. As it can be confirmed from the increasing number of conferences and journals on adaptive control topics, it is certain that the adaptive control is a significant guidance for technology development.The authors the chapters in this book are professionals in their areas and their recent research results are presented in this book which will also provide new ideas for improved performance of various control application problems

Discrete Time Systems

Discrete-Time Systems comprehend an important and broad research field. The consolidation of digital-based computational means in the present, pushes a technological tool into the field with a tremendous impact in areas like Control, Signal Processing, Communications, System Modelling and related Applications. This book attempts to give a scope in the wide area of Discrete-Time Systems. Their contents are grouped conveniently in sections according to significant areas, namely Filtering, Fixed and Adaptive Control Systems, Stability Problems and Miscellaneous Applications. We think that the contribution of the book enlarges the field of the Discrete-Time Systems with signification in the present state-of-the-art. Despite the vertiginous advance in the field, we also believe that the topics described here allow us also to look through some main tendencies in the next years in the research area