Composite hierarchical pitch angle control for a tidal turbine based on the uncertainty and disturbance estimator

With the fast development of tidal turbines for sustainable energy generations, reliable and efficient tidal pitch systems are highly demanded. This paper presents a systematic design for a novel tidal pitch system based on hydraulic servo and bevel geared transmission. This system holds the characteristics of compact and triangular structure, making it easy to be installed in a narrow turbine hub. The pitch system dynamics are modelled by taking account of model uncertainties and external disturbances. An uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE)-based robust pitch control algorithm is developed to achieve effective pitch angle regulation, disturbance rejection and generator power smoothing. The UDE controller is designed in a composite hierarchical manner that includes an upper level power smoothing controller and a low level pitch angle tracking controller. The performance of the proposed pitch system and the UDE control is demonstrated through extensive simulation studies based on a 600 kW tidal turbine under varying tidal speeds. Compared with the conventional controller, the UDE based pitch controller can achieve more reliable power smoothing and pitch angle tracking with higher accuracy

An Active Disturbance Rejection Control Solution for Electro-Hydraulic Servo Systems

The intriguing history of disturbance cancellation control is reviewed in this thesis first, which demonstrates that this unique control concept is both reasonable and practical. One novel form of disturbance cancellation, ADRC (Active Disturbance Rejection Control), attracts much attention because of its good disturbance rejection ability and simplicity in implementation. Hydraulic systems tend to have many disturbances and model uncertainties, giving us a great motivation to find out a good control method. In this thesis, electro-hydraulic servo control problem is reformulated to focus on the core problem of disturbance rejection. An ADRC solution is developed and evaluated against the industry standard solution, with promising result

Model based control strategies for a class of nonlinear mechanical sub-systems

This paper presents a comparison between various control strategies for a class of mechanical actuators common in heavy-duty industry. Typical actuator components are hydraulic or pneumatic elements with static non-linearities, which are commonly referred to as Hammerstein systems. Such static non-linearities may vary in time as a function of the load and hence classical inverse-model based control strategies may deliver sub-optimal performance. This paper investigates the ability of advanced model based control strategies to satisfy a tolerance interval for position error values, overshoot and settling time specifications. Due to the presence of static non-linearity requiring changing direction of movement, control effort is also evaluated in terms of zero crossing frequency (up-down or left-right movement). Simulation and experimental data from a lab setup suggest that sliding mode control is able to improve global performance parameters

Learning and Reacting with Inaccurate Prediction: Applications to Autonomous Excavation

Motivated by autonomous excavation, this work investigates solutions to a class of problem where disturbance prediction is critical to overcoming poor performance of a feedback controller, but where the disturbance prediction is intrinsically inaccurate. Poor feedback controller performance is related to a fundamental control problem: there is only a limited amount of disturbance rejection that feedback compensation can provide. It is known, however, that predictive action can improve the disturbance rejection of a control system beyond the limitations of feedback. While prediction is desirable, the problem in excavation is that disturbance predictions are prone to error due to the variability and complexity of soil-tool interaction forces. This work proposes the use of iterative learning control to map the repetitive components of excavation forces into feedforward commands. Although feedforward action shows useful to improve excavation performance, the non-repetitive nature of soil-tool interaction forces is a source of inaccurate predictions. To explicitly address the use of imperfect predictive compensation, a disturbance observer is used to estimate the prediction error. To quantify inaccuracy in prediction, a feedforward model of excavation disturbances is interpreted as a communication channel that transmits corrupted disturbance previews, for which metrics based on the sensitivity function exist. During field trials the proposed method demonstrated the ability to iteratively achieve a desired dig geometry, independent of the initial feasibility of the excavation passes in relation to actuator saturation. Predictive commands adapted to different soil conditions and passes were repeated autonomously until a pre-specified finish quality of the trench was achieved. Evidence of improvement in disturbance rejection is presented as a comparison of sensitivity functions of systems with and without the use of predictive disturbance compensation

Input-output linearization and fractional robust control of a non-linear system

This article deals with the association of a linear robust controller and an input-output linearization feedback for the control of a perturbed and non-linear system. This technique is applied to the control of a hydraulic system whose actuator is non-linear and whose load is time-variant. The piston velocity of the actuator needs to be controlled and a pressure-difference inner-loop is used to improve the performance. To remove the effect of the non-linearity, an input-output linearization under diffeomorphism and feedback is achieved. CRONE control, based on complex fractional differentiation, is applied to design a controller for piston-velocity loop even when parametric variations occu

Improved Third Order PID Sliding Mode Controller for Electrohydraulic Actuator Tracking Control

An electrohydraulic actuator (EHA) system is a combination of hydraulic systems and electrical systems which can produce a rapid response, high power-to-weight ratio, and large stiffness. Nevertheless, the EHA system has nonlinear behaviors and modeling uncertainties such as frictions, internal and external leakages, and parametric uncertainties, which lead to significant challenges in controller design for trajectory tracking. Therefore, this paper presents the design of an intelligent adaptive sliding mode proportional integral and derivative (SMCPID) controller, which is the main contribution toward the development of effective control on a third-order model of a double-acting EHA system for trajectory tracking, which significantly reduces chattering under noise disturbance. The sliding mode controller (SMC) is created by utilizing the exponential rule and the Lyapunov theorem to ensure closed-loop stability. The chattering in the SMC controller has been significantly decreased by substituting the modified sigmoid function for the signum function. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) was used to lower the total of absolute errors to adjust the controller. In order to demonstrate the efficacy of the SMCPID controller, the results for trajectory tracking and noise disturbance rejection were compared to those obtained using the proportional integral and derivative (PID), the proportional and derivative (PD), and the sliding mode proportional and derivative (SMCPD) controllers, respectively. In conclusion, the results of the extensive research given have indicated that the SMCPID controller outperforms the PD, PID, and SMCPD controllers in terms of overall performance.

Fault tolerant control design of floating offshore wind turbines

This work is concerned with active vibration mitigation in wind turbines (WT) but not through the use of specifically tailored devices. Instead, a general control scheme is designed for torque and pitch controllers based on a super-twisting algorithm, which uses additional feedback of the fore-aft and side-to-side acceleration signals at the top of the WT tower to mitigate the vibrational behavior. In general, proposed methods to improve damping through pitch and torque control suffer from increased blade pitch actuator usage. However, in this work the blade pitch angle is smoothed leading to a decrease of the pitch actuator effort, among other benefits evidenced through numerical experiments. The most frequent faults induce vibrations in the corresponding WT subsystems. In fact, vibration monitoring has been recently used for fault diagnosis Thus, by means of vibration mitigation, different faulty conditions can be alleviated leading to a passive fault tolerant control. In this work, coupled non-linear aero-hydro- servo-elastic simulations of a floating offshore wind turbine are carried out for one of the most common pitch actuator faults.Postprint (published version

Nonlinear Control Strategies for Advanced Vehicle Thermal Management Systems

Advanced thermal management systems for internal combustion engines can improve coolant temperature regulation and servo-motor power consumption to positively impact the tailpipe emissions, fuel economy, and parasitic losses by better regulating the combustion process with multiple computer controlled components. The traditional thermostat valve, coolant pump, and clutch-driven radiator fan are upgraded with servo-motor actuators. When the system components function harmoniously, desired thermal conditions can be accomplished in a power efficient manner. Although the vehicle\u27s mechanical loads can be driven by electric servo-motors, the power demands often require large actuator sizes and electrical currents. Integrating hydraulically-driven actuators in the cooling circuit offers higher torques in a smaller package space. Hydraulics are widely applied in transportation and manufacturing systems due to their high power density, design flexibility for power transmission, and ease of computer control. In this dissertation, several comprehensive nonlinear control architectures are proposed for transient temperature tracking in automotive cooling circuits. First, a single loop experimental cooling system has been fabricated and assembled which features a variable position smart valve, variable speed electric coolant pump, variable speed electric radiator fan, engine block, radiator, steam-based heat exchanger, and various sensors. Second, a multiple loop experimental cooling system has been assembled which features a variable position smart thermostat valve, two variable speed electric pumps, variable speed electric radiator fan, engine block, transmission, radiator, steam-based heat exchanger, and sensors. Third, a single loop experimental hydraulic-based thermal system has been assembled which features a variable speed hydraulic coolant pump and radiator fan, radiator, and immersion heaters. In the first and second configured systems, the steam-based heat exchanger emulates the engine\u27s combustion process and transmission heat. For the third test platform, immersion heating coils emulate the combustion heat. For the first configured system, representative numerical and experimental results are discussed to demonstrate the thermal management system operation in precisely tracking desired temperature profiles and minimizing electrical power consumption. The experimental results show that less than 0.2°K temperature tracking error can be achieved with a 14% improvement in the system component power consumption. In the second configured system, representative experimental results are discussed to investigate the functionality of the multi-loop thermal management system under normal and elevated ambient temperatures. The presented results clearly show that the proposed robust controller-based thermal management system can accurately track prescribed engine and transmission temperature profiles within 0.13°K and 0.65°K, respectively, and minimize electrical power consumption by 92% when compared to the traditional factory control method. Finally, representative numerical and experimental results are discussed to demonstrate the performance of the hydraulic actuators-based advance thermal management system in tracking prescribed temperature profiles (e.g., 42% improvement in the temperature tracking error) and minimizing satisfactorily hydraulic power consumption when compared to other common control method