A Study of Advanced Modern Control Techniques Applied to a Twin Rotor MIMO System

The twin rotor MIMO system (TRMS) is a helicopter-like system that is restricted to two degrees of freedom, pitch and yaw. It is a complicated nonlinear, coupled, MIMO system used for the verification of control methods and observers. There have been many methods successfully applied to the system ranging from simple proportional integral derivative (PID) controllers, to machine learning algorithms, nonlinear control methods and other less explored methods like deadbeat control and various optimal methodologies. This thesis details the design procedure for two different control methods. The first is a suboptimal tracking controller using a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) with integral action. The second is the design of several adaptive sliding mode controller to provide robust tracking control of the TRMS. Once the design is complete the controllers are tested in simulation and their performance is compared against a PID controller experimentally. The performance of the controllers are also compared against other controllers in the literature. The ability of the sliding mode controllers (SMC) to suppress chattering is also be explored

Hysteretic control of grid-side current for a single-phase LCL grid-connected voltage source converter

© 2016. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This paper proposes a new approach to control the grid-side current of LCL-grid connected voltage source converters using hysteretic relay feedback controllers. The closed loop system is stabilized by designing a local feedback around the relay element. The compensator allows the use of relay feedback controllers by making the controlled plant almost strictly positive real. The article proposes the use of the locus of the perturbed relay system as analysis and design tool and studies orbital stability for several plant and controller conditions. The approach is validated by means of simulation testing.Postprint (author's final draft

Robust auto tool change for industrial robots using visual servoing

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Muñoz-Benavent, Pau, Solanes Galbis, Juan Ernesto, Gracia Calandin, Luis Ignacio, Tornero Montserrat, Josep. (2019). Robust auto tool change for industrial robots using visual servoing.International Journal of Systems Science, 50, 2, 432-449. © Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://doi.org/10.1080/00207721.2018.1562129[EN] This work presents an automated solution for tool changing in industrial robots using visual servoing and sliding mode control. The robustness of the proposed method is due to the control law of the visual servoing, which uses the information acquired by a vision system to close a feedback control loop. Furthermore, sliding mode control is simultaneously used in a prioritised level to satisfy the constraints typically present in a robot system: joint range limits, maximum joint speeds and allowed workspace. Thus, the global control accurately places the tool in the warehouse, but satisfying the robot constraints. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach is substantiated by simulation results for a complex 3D case study. Moreover, real experimentation with a 6R industrial manipulator is also presented to demonstrate the applicability of the method for tool changing.This work was supported in part by the Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de Espana under Grant BES-2010-038486 and Project DPI2017-87656-C2-1-R.Muñoz-Benavent, P.; Solanes Galbis, JE.; Gracia Calandin, LI.; Tornero Montserrat, J. (2019). Robust auto tool change for industrial robots using visual servoing. International Journal of Systems Science. 50(2):432-449. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207721.2018.1562129S43244950

The Static and Dynamic Efficiency of Instruments of Promotion of Renewables

This paper deals with a comparative analysis of the economic and social efficiency of the instruments used to promote renewable energy sources (RES), first from a static standpoint and then using dynamic criteria to assess their ability to stimulate technological progress and cost reduction. First, the instruments are analysed in relation to the classical discussion of environmental policy that opposes price-based instruments versus quantity-based instruments in an uncertain environment (feed-in tariffs as price based system on one hand, quotas + green certificates, competitive bidding as quantity-based instruments on the other hand). Next, the incentives to invest and innovate in the context of each framework are analysed in relation to the sharing of the surplus associated with each of them between producers/constructors and consumers or the public budget. Finally, the paper looks at the overall cost-efficiency of the policies on the basis of each instrument, by referring to factual evidence in European experiences. It concludes that if social preference is attached to climate change prevention and reflected in a high quantitative objective for renewables, sliding scale feed-in tariffs are a good compromise in order to promote technical progress and national RES industry also. The quota/certificate system also presents a number of advantages in terms of static efficiency, but its ability to stimulate innovation still has to be confirmed by experience.énergies renouvelables;progrès technologique;certificat vert

Field Oriented Sliding Mode Control of Surface-Mounted Permanent Magnet AC Motors: Theory and Applications to Electrified Vehicles

Permanent magnet ac motors have been extensively utilized for adjustable-speed traction motor drives, due to their inherent advantages including higher power density, superior efficiency and reliability, more precise and rapid torque control, larger power factor, longer bearing, and insulation life-time. Without any proportional-and-integral (PI) controllers, this paper introduces novel first- and higher-order field-oriented sliding mode control schemes. Compared with the traditional PI-based vector control techniques, it is shown that the proposed field oriented sliding mode control methods improve the dynamic torque and speed response, and enhance the robustness to parameter variations, modeling uncertainties, and external load perturbations. While both first- and higher-order controllers display excellent performance, computer simulations show that the higher-order field-oriented sliding mode scheme offers better performance by reducing the chattering phenomenon, which is presented in the first-order scheme. The higher-order field-oriented sliding mode controller, based on the hierarchical use of supertwisting algorithm, is then implemented with a Texas Instruments TMS320F28335 DSP hardware platform to prototype the surface-mounted permanent magnet ac motor drive. Last, computer simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed field-oriented sliding mode control approach is able to effectively meet the speed and torque requirements of a heavy-duty electrified vehicle during the EPA urban driving schedule