A virtual actuator approach for the secure control of networked LPV systems under pulse-width modulated DoS attacks

In this paper, we formulate and analyze the problem of secure control in the context of networked linear parameter varying (LPV) systems. We consider an energy-constrained, pulse-width modulated (PWM) jammer, which corrupts the control communication channel by performing a denial-of-service (DoS) attack. In particular, the malicious attacker is able to erase the data sent to one or more actuators. In order to achieve secure control, we propose a virtual actuator technique under the assumption that the behavior of the attacker has been identified. The main advantage brought by this technique is that the existing components in the control system can be maintained without need of retuning them, since the virtual actuator will perform a reconfiguration of the plant, hiding the attack from the controller point of view. Using Lyapunov-based results that take into account the possible behavior of the attacker, design conditions for calculating the virtual actuators gains are obtained. A numerical example is used to illustrate the proposed secure control strategy.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Mathematical problems for complex networks

Copyright @ 2012 Zidong Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Complex networks do exist in our lives. The brain is a neural network. The global economy is a network of national economies. Computer viruses routinely spread through the Internet. Food-webs, ecosystems, and metabolic pathways can be represented by networks. Energy is distributed through transportation networks in living organisms, man-made infrastructures, and other physical systems. Dynamic behaviors of complex networks, such as stability, periodic oscillation, bifurcation, or even chaos, are ubiquitous in the real world and often reconfigurable. Networks have been studied in the context of dynamical systems in a range of disciplines. However, until recently there has been relatively little work that treats dynamics as a function of network structure, where the states of both the nodes and the edges can change, and the topology of the network itself often evolves in time. Some major problems have not been fully investigated, such as the behavior of stability, synchronization and chaos control for complex networks, as well as their applications in, for example, communication and bioinformatics

A review of convex approaches for control, observation and safety of linear parameter varying and Takagi-Sugeno systems

This paper provides a review about the concept of convex systems based on Takagi-Sugeno, linear parameter varying (LPV) and quasi-LPV modeling. These paradigms are capable of hiding the nonlinearities by means of an equivalent description which uses a set of linear models interpolated by appropriately defined weighing functions. Convex systems have become very popular since they allow applying extended linear techniques based on linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) to complex nonlinear systems. This survey aims at providing the reader with a significant overview of the existing LMI-based techniques for convex systems in the fields of control, observation and safety. Firstly, a detailed review of stability, feedback, tracking and model predictive control (MPC) convex controllers is considered. Secondly, the problem of state estimation is addressed through the design of proportional, proportional-integral, unknown input and descriptor observers. Finally, safety of convex systems is discussed by describing popular techniques for fault diagnosis and fault tolerant control (FTC).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Supervisory fault tolerant control of the GTM UAV using LPV methods

A multi-level reconfiguration framework is proposed for fault tolerant control of over-actuated aerial vehicles, where the levels indicate how much authority is given to the reconfiguration task. On the lowest, first level the fault is accommodated by modifying only the actuator/sensor configuration, so the fault remains hidden from the baseline controller. A dynamic reallocation scheme is applied on this level. The allocation mechanism exploits the actuator/sensor redundancy available on the aircraft. When the fault cannot be managed at the actuator/sensor level, the reconfiguration process has access to the baseline controller. Based on the LPV control framework, this is done by introducing fault-specific scheduling parameters. The baseline controller is designed to provide an acceptable performance level along all fault scenarios coded in these scheduling variables. The decision on which reconfiguration level has to be initiated in response to a fault is determined by a supervisor unit. The method is demonstrated on a full six-degrees-of-freedom nonlinear simulation model of the GTM UAV

Linear parameter-varying model to design control laws for an artificial pancreas

The contribution of this work is the generation of a control-oriented model for insulin-glucose dynamic regulation in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). The novelty of this model is that it includes the time-varying nature, and the inter-patient variability of the glucose-control problem. In addition, the model is well suited for well-known and standard controller synthesis procedures. The outcome is an average linear parameter-varying (LPV) model that captures the dynamics from the insulin delivery input to the glucose concentration output constructed based on the UVA/Padova metabolic simulator. Finally, a system-oriented reinterpretation of the classical ad-hoc 1800 rule is applied to adapt the model's gain. The effectiveness of this approach is quantified both in open- and closed-loop. The first one by computing the root mean square error (RMSE) between the glucose deviation predicted by the proposed model and the UVA/Padova one. The second measure is determined by using the ν-gap as a metric to determine distance, in terms of closed-loop performance, between both models. For comparison purposes, both open- (RMSE) and closed-loop (ν-gap metric) quality indicators are also computed for other control-oriented models previously presented. This model allows the design of LPV controllers in a straightforward way, considering its affine dependence on the time-varying parameter, which can be computed in real-time. Illustrative simulations are included. In addition, the presented modeling strategy was employed in the design of an artificial pancreas (AP) control law that successfully withstood rigorous testing using the UVA/Padova simulator, and that was subsequently deployed in a clinical trial campaign where five adults remained in closed-loop for 36 h. This was the first ever fully closed-loop clinical AP trial in Argentina, and the modeling strategy presented here is considered instrumental in resulting in a very successful clinical outcome.Fil: Colmegna, Patricio Hernán. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Sánchez Peña, Ricardo S.. Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Gondhalekar, R.. Harvard University; Estados Unido

Fault tolerant LPV control of the GTM UAV with dynamic control allocation

The aim of the paper is to present a dynamic control allocation architecture for the design and development of reconfigurable and fault-tolerant control systems in aerial vehicles. The baseline control system is designed for the nominal dynamics of the aircraft, while faults and actuator saturation limits are handled by the dynamic control allocation scheme. Coordination of these components is provided by a supervisor which re-allocates control authority based on health information, flight envelope limits and cross coupling between lateral and longitudinal motion. The monitoring components and FDI filters provide the supervisor with information about different fault operations, based on that it is able to make decisions about necessary interventions into the vehicle motions and guarantee fault-tolerant operation of the aircraft. The design of the proposed reconfigurable control algorithm is based on Linear Parameter-varying (LPV) control methods that uses a parameter dependent dynamic control allocation scheme. The design is demonstrated on the lateral axis motion of the NASA AirSTAR Flight Test Vehicle simulation model

Identification and control of structures in space

Work during the period July 1 - December 31, 1985, has concentrated on the application of the equations derived in the preceding period to the maneuvering and vibration suppression of the Spacecraft Control Laboratory Experiment (SCOLE) model. Two different situations have been considered: (1) a space environment and (2) a laboratory environment. This report covers the first case and consists of a paper entitled Maneuvering and Vibration Control of Flexible Spacecraft, presented at the Workshop on Structural Dynamics and Control Interaction of Flexible Structures, Marshall Space flight Center, Huntsville, AL, April 22 to 24, 1986. The second case will be covered in the report for the next period

Versatile bipolar temperature controller for custom in vitro applications

Effective temperature control is crucial in many studies of isolated biological tissues, with preparations often requiring specialized holding chambers. In these situations, the design flexibility and optimizations offered by a custom made temperature controller may be preferable over a commercial model. We present a versatile controller for heating and cooling applications, providing simple step-by-step instructions to mathematically model your specific system and optimize controller parameters. The apparatus uses analog components and linear stages to simplify circuit comprehension and customization, achieving fast transitions with small static errors and overshoots over a wide range of temperatures without readjustment. A fully featured rackable enclosure is complemented by two temperature probes based on the LMT70A linear microchip sensor (for the control loop and for bath monitoring). BNC outputs provide scaled probe signals for continuous temperature data acquisition. The maximum achievable power output of the controller is -23.5 W/+22.0 W (-4.7 V/+4.4 V, \ub15.0 A), sufficient to bring a well designed holder for standard 35 mm chambers from 23 \ub0C up to 37 \ub0C in ~1 min and down to 3 \ub0C in ~4 min. Any biologist with some technical prowess should be able to follow our instructions from modeling to assembly and calibration

Planning natural repointing manoeuvres for nano-spacecraft

In this paper the natural dynamics of a rigid body are exploited to plan attitude manoeuvres for a small spacecraft. By utilising the analytical solutions of the angular velocities and making use of Lax pair integration, the time evolution of the attitude of the spacecraft in a convenient quaternion form is derived. This enables repointing manoeuvres to be generated by optimising the free parameters of the analytical expressions, the initial angular velocities of the spacecraft, to match prescribed boundary conditions on the final attitude of the spacecraft. This produces reference motions which can be tracked using a simple proportional-derivative controller. The natural motions are compared in simulation to a conventional quaternion feedback controller and found to require lower accumulated torque. A simple obstacle avoidance algorithm, exploiting the analytic form of natural motions, is also described and implemented in simulation. The computational efficiency of the motion planning method is discussed

Planning natural repointing manoeuvres for nano-spacecraft

In this paper the natural dynamics of a rigid body are exploited to plan attitude manoeuvres for a small spacecraft. By utilising the analytical solutions of the angular velocities and making use of Lax pair integration, the time evolution of the attitude of the spacecraft in a convenient quaternion form is derived. This enables repointing manoeuvres to be generated by optimising the free parameters of the analytical expressions, the initial angular velocities of the spacecraft, to match prescribed boundary conditions on the final attitude of the spacecraft. This produces reference motions which can be tracked using a simple proportional-derivative controller. The natural motions are compared in simulation to a conventional quaternion feedback controller and found to require lower accumulated torque. A simple obstacle avoidance algorithm, exploiting the analytic form of natural motions, is also described and implemented in simulation. The computational efficiency of the motion planning method is discussed