Stabiity for Systems with Unknown Time Delays

Time delays are of long-standing interest in the study of control systems since they appear in many practical control problems and tend to degrade overall system performance. In this thesis, we consider two distinct problems involving uncertain time delays. The first problem that we consider is the achievable delay margin problem, which is determining the longest delay for which stability can be maintained when using a linear time invariant (LTI) controller. This problem has been considered in continuous-time, where bounds (often tight) have been found for plants with non-zero right half plane poles. In this work, we consider the discrete-time case, where we prove that an LTI controller exists which stabilizes the plant and the plant with a one step delay if and only if the plant has no negative, real unstable poles. The second problem that we consider is stabilizing any continuous-time single-input single-output LTI plant with an arbitrarily large time delay and gain. To solve this problem, we propose a simple generalized hold whose resulting discretized system is amenable to adaptive control. Furthermore, by exploiting the structure of the resulting discretized system, we propose purpose built estimators for the unknown gain and delay, which allows us to not only provide bounded-input bounded-output (BIBO) closed-loop stability, but also guarantees the exponential decay of any plant initial conditions, robustness to un-modelled dynamics, and tolerance to occasional, possibly persistent, jumps in the gain and delay. Furthermore, for the case of a first order plant, a similar, but suitably modified controller is shown to tolerate continuous variation of the unknown delay while still providing BIBO closed-loop stability

A generalized smith predictor for unstable time-delay SISO systems

[EN] In this work, a generalization of the Smith Predictor (SP) is proposed to control linear time-invariant (LTI) time-delay single-input single-output (SISO) systems. Similarly to the SP, the combination of any stabilizing output-feedback controller for the delay-free system with the proposed predictor leads to a stabilizing controller for the delayed system. Furthermore, the tracking performance and the steady-state disturbance rejection capabilities of the equivalent delay-free loop are preserved. In order to place this contribution in context, some modifications of the SP are revisited and recast under the same structure. The features of the proposed scheme are illustrated through simulations, showing a comparison with respect to the corresponding delay-free loop, which is here considered to be the ideal scenario. In order to emphasize the feasibility of this approach, a successful experimental implementation in a laboratory platform is also reported.This work was partially supported by the projects PROMETEOII/2013/004, Conselleria d'Educacio, Generalitat Valenciana; TIN2014-56158-C4-4-P-AR, Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad; and the FPI-UPV 2014 PhD Grant, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Spain.Sanz Díaz, R.; García Gil, PJ.; Albertos Pérez, P. (2017). A generalized smith predictor for unstable time-delay SISO systems. ISA Transactions. 72:197-204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2017.09.020S1972047

Stability margins and model-free control: A first look

We show that the open-loop transfer functions and the stability margins may be defined within the recent model-free control setting. Several convincing computer experiments are presented including one which studies the robustness with respect to delays.Comment: 13th European Control Conference, Strasbourg : France (2014

Modern Design of Classical Controllers

Classical controller design emphasizes simple low-order controllers. These classical controllers include Proportional-Integral (PI), Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID), and First Order. In modern control theory, it is customary to design high-order controllers based on models, even for simple plants. However, it was shown that such controllers are invariably fragile, and this led to a renewal of interest in classical design methods. In the present research, a modern approach to the design of classical controllers (by introducing a complete stabilizing set in the space of the design parameters) is described. When classical specifications such as gain margin, phase margin, bandwidth, and time-delay tolerance are imposed, the achievable performance can be easily determined graphically. The objective of this research is to determine the controller gains, contained in the stabilizing set, which satisfy desired performance specifications such as crossover frequency and closed-loop stability margins. The design procedure starts with the calculation of the stabilizing set using recent methods. Then, a simple parametrization produces ellipses and straight lines (for PI controller design) and cylinders and planes (for PID controller design) in the space of controller gains. Each set of ellipses/cylinders and straight lines/planes represents constant magnitude and constant phase loci for the controller. The main result is that the crossing points, which are the intersection of ellipses/cylinders and straight lines/planes, are selected such that they are contained in the stabilizing set of controllers. They provide the controller gains that we need to satisfy our desired robust performance, seen as desired gain margin, phase margin, gain crossover frequency, and time-delay tolerance in our system. Then, using these crossing points contained in the stabilizing set, a new plot with information about the achievable performance in terms of gain margin, phase margin, and gain crossover frequency is constructed. Each point of this achievable performance can be used to retrieve the controller’s gains, which are contained in the stabilizing set. This result provides the possibility to analyze the system’s achievable performance by exploring the stabilizing set and considering different desired configurations in the performance capabilities for the system using a PI or PID controller. This expands our possibilities when designing controllers by considering different classical controller’s configurations. This research considers the discrete-time and continuous-time linear time invariant systems and cases including First Order with time-delay in the system, and the extension to the controller design for multivariable systems. Finally, the design procedure is illustrated with different examples and real applications for all such cases

Event-Based Control and Estimation with Stochastic Disturbances

This thesis deals with event-based control and estimation strategies, motivated by certain bottlenecks in the control loop. Two kinds of implementation constraints are considered: closing one or several control loops over a data network, and sensors that report measurements only as intervals (e.g. with quantization). The proposed strategies depend critically on _events_, when a data packet is sent or when a change in the measurement signal is received. The value of events is that they communicate new information about stochastic process disturbances. A data network in the control loop imposes constraints on the event timing, modelled as a minimum time between packets. A thresholdbased control strategy is suggested and shown to be optimal for firstorder systems with impulse control. Different ways to find the optimal threshold are investigated for single and multiple control loops sharing one network. The major gain compared to linear time invariant (LTI) control is with a single loop a greatly reduced communication rate, which with multiple loops can be traded for a similarly reduced regulation error. With the bottleneck that sensors report only intervals, both the theoretical and practical control problems become more complex. We focus on the estimation problem, where the optimal solution is known but untractable. Two simplifications are explored to find a realistic state estimator: reformulation to a mixed stochastic/worst case scenario and joint maximum a posteriori estimation. The latter approach is simplified and evaluated experimentally on a moving cart with quantized position measurements controlled by a low-end microcontroller. The examples considered demonstrate that event-based control considerably outperforms LTI control, when the bottleneck addressed is a genuine performance constraint on the latter

Controller design for periodic disturbance rejection

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN

Robust, Practical Adaptive Control for Launch Vehicles

A modern mechanization of a classical adaptive control concept is presented with an application to launch vehicle attitude control systems. Due to a rigorous flight certification environment, many adaptive control concepts are infeasible when applied to high-risk aerospace systems; methods of stability analysis are either intractable for high complexity models or cannot be reconciled in light of classical requirements. Furthermore, many adaptive techniques appearing in the literature are not suitable for application to conditionally stable systems with complex flexible-body dynamics, as is often the case with launch vehicles. The present technique is a multiplicative forward loop gain adaptive law similar to that used for the NASA X-15 flight research vehicle. In digital implementation with several novel features, it is well-suited to application on aerodynamically unstable launch vehicles with thrust vector control via augmentation of the baseline attitude/attitude-rate feedback control scheme. The approach is compatible with standard design features of autopilots for launch vehicles, including phase stabilization of lateral bending and slosh via linear filters. In addition, the method of assessing flight control stability via classical gain and phase margins is not affected under reasonable assumptions. The algorithm s ability to recover from certain unstable operating regimes can in fact be understood in terms of frequency-domain criteria. Finally, simulation results are presented that confirm the ability of the algorithm to improve performance and robustness in realistic failure scenarios