A survey on fractional order control techniques for unmanned aerial and ground vehicles

In recent years, numerous applications of science and engineering for modeling and control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) systems based on fractional calculus have been realized. The extra fractional order derivative terms allow to optimizing the performance of the systems. The review presented in this paper focuses on the control problems of the UAVs and UGVs that have been addressed by the fractional order techniques over the last decade

Nonlinear robust adaptive NN control for variable-sweep aircraft

In this paper, we address the problem of altitude and velocity controllers design for variable-sweep aircraft with model uncertainties. The object is to maintain altitude and velocity during the wing transition process where mass distribution and aerodynamic parameters change significantly. Based on the functional decomposition, the longitudinal dynamics of the aircraft can be divided into altitude subsystem in non-affine pure feedback form and velocity subsystem. And then nonlinear robust adaptive NN velocity controller and altitude controller are designed with backstepping method to relax the prior requirements of aerodynamic parameters accuracy in linear LPV controller design. The method of filtered signal is used to circumvent the algebraic loop problem caused by the dynamics of non-affine pure feedback form. Dynamic surface control (DSC) and minimal learning parameters (MLP) techniques are employed to solve the problems of ‘explosion of complexity’ in the back-stepping method and the online updated parameters being too much. The robust terms have been introduced to eliminate the influences of approximation errors. According to the Lyapunov-LaSalle invariant set theorem, the semi-global boundedness and convergence of all the signals of the closed-loop system are proved. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the control algorithm with good performance

Decentralized adaptive neural network control of interconnected nonlinear dynamical systems with application to power system

Traditional nonlinear techniques cannot be directly applicable to control large scale interconnected nonlinear dynamic systems due their sheer size and unavailability of system dynamics. Therefore, in this dissertation, the decentralized adaptive neural network (NN) control of a class of nonlinear interconnected dynamic systems is introduced and its application to power systems is presented in the form of six papers. In the first paper, a new nonlinear dynamical representation in the form of a large scale interconnected system for a power network free of algebraic equations with multiple UPFCs as nonlinear controllers is presented. Then, oscillation damping for UPFCs using adaptive NN control is discussed by assuming that the system dynamics are known. Subsequently, the dynamic surface control (DSC) framework is proposed in continuous-time not only to overcome the need for the subsystem dynamics and interconnection terms, but also to relax the explosion of complexity problem normally observed in traditional backstepping. The application of DSC-based decentralized control of power system with excitation control is shown in the third paper. On the other hand, a novel adaptive NN-based decentralized controller for a class of interconnected discrete-time systems with unknown subsystem and interconnection dynamics is introduced since discrete-time is preferred for implementation. The application of the decentralized controller is shown on a power network. Next, a near optimal decentralized discrete-time controller is introduced in the fifth paper for such systems in affine form whereas the sixth paper proposes a method for obtaining the L2-gain near optimal control while keeping a tradeoff between accuracy and computational complexity. Lyapunov theory is employed to assess the stability of the controllers --Abstract, page iv

RISE-Based Integrated Motion Control of Autonomous Ground Vehicles With Asymptotic Prescribed Performance

This article investigates the integrated lane-keeping and roll control for autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs) considering the transient performance and system disturbances. The robust integral of the sign of error (RISE) control strategy is proposed to achieve the lane-keeping control purpose with rollover prevention, by guaranteeing the asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system, attenuating systematic disturbances, and maintaining the controlled states within the prescribed performance boundaries. Three contributions have been made in this article: 1) a new prescribed performance function (PPF) that does not require accurate initial errors is proposed to guarantee the tracking errors restricted within the predefined asymptotic boundaries; 2) a modified neural network (NN) estimator which requires fewer adaptively updated parameters is proposed to approximate the unknown vertical dynamics; and 3) the improved RISE control based on PPF is proposed to achieve the integrated control objective, which analytically guarantees both the controller continuity and closed-loop system asymptotic stability by integrating the signum error function. The overall system stability is proved with the Lyapunov function. The controller effectiveness and robustness are finally verified by comparative simulations using two representative driving maneuvers, based on the high-fidelity CarSim-Simulink simulation

Adaptive backstepping control for ship nonlinear active fin system based on disturbance observer and neural network

Adaptive backstepping control based on disturbance observer and neural network for ship nonlinear active fin system is proposed. One disturbance observer is given to observe the disturbances of the system, by this way, the response time is shorten and the negative impact of disturbance and uncertain elements of the system is reduced. In addition, radial basic function neural network (RBFNN) is proposed to approach the unknown elements in the ship nonlinear active fin system, therefor the system can obtain good roll reduction effectiveness and overcome the uncertainties of the model, the designed controller can maintain the ship roll angle at desired value. Finally, the simulation results are given for a supply vessel to verify the successfulness of the proposed controller