Scale-free Linear Observer-based Protocol Design for Global Regulated State Synchronization of Homogeneous Multi-agent Systems with Non-introspective Agents Subject to Input Saturation

This paper studies global regulated state synchronization of homogeneous networks of non-introspective agents in presence of input saturation. We identify three classes of agent models which are neutrally stable, double-integrator, and mixed of double-integrator, single-integrator and neutrally stable dynamics. A \textit{scale-free linear observer-based} protocol design methodology is developed based on localized information exchange among neighbors where the reference trajectory is given by a so-called exosystem which is assumed to be globally reachable. Our protocols do not need any knowledge about the communication network topology and the spectrum of associated Laplacian matrix. Moreover, the proposed protocol is scalable and is designed based on only knowledge of agent models and achieves synchronization for any communication graph with arbitrary number of agents.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2004.09498, arXiv:1908.06535, arXiv:2001.02117, arXiv:2002.0657

Robust nonlinear control of vectored thrust aircraft

An interdisciplinary program in robust control for nonlinear systems with applications to a variety of engineering problems is outlined. Major emphasis will be placed on flight control, with both experimental and analytical studies. This program builds on recent new results in control theory for stability, stabilization, robust stability, robust performance, synthesis, and model reduction in a unified framework using Linear Fractional Transformations (LFT's), Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMI's), and the structured singular value micron. Most of these new advances have been accomplished by the Caltech controls group independently or in collaboration with researchers in other institutions. These recent results offer a new and remarkably unified framework for all aspects of robust control, but what is particularly important for this program is that they also have important implications for system identification and control of nonlinear systems. This combines well with Caltech's expertise in nonlinear control theory, both in geometric methods and methods for systems with constraints and saturations

Task-Priority Control of Redundant Robotic Systems using Control Lyapunov and Control Barrier Function based Quadratic Programs

This paper presents a novel task-priority control framework for redundant robotic systems based on a hierarchy of control Lyapunov function (CLF) and control barrier function (CBF) based quadratic programs (QPs). The proposed method guarantees strict priority among different groups of tasks such as safety-related, operational and optimization tasks. Moreover, a soft priority measure in the form of penalty parameters can be employed to prioritize tasks at the same priority level. As opposed to kinematic control schemes, the proposed framework is a holistic approach to control of redundant robotic systems, which solves the redundancy resolution, dynamic control and control allocation problems simultaneously. Numerical simulations of a hyper-redundant articulated intervention autonomous underwater vehicle (AIAUV) is presented to validate the proposed framework.Comment: 21st IFAC World Congres

Decentralized and Fault-Tolerant Control of Power Systems with High Levels of Renewables

Inter-area oscillations have been identified as a major problem faced by most power systems and stability of these oscillations are of vital concern due to the potential for equipment damage and resulting restrictions on available transmission capacity. In recent years, wide-area measurement systems (WAMSs) have been deployed that allow inter-area modes to be observed and identified.Power grids consist of interconnections of many subsystems which may interact with their neighbors and include several sensors and actuator arrays. Modern grids are spatially distributed and centralized strategies are computationally expensive and might be impractical in terms of hardware limitations such as communication speed. Hence, decentralized control strategies are more desirable.Recently, the use of HVDC links, FACTS devices and renewable sources for damping of inter-area oscillations have been discussed in the literature. However, very few such systems have been deployed in practice partly due to the high level of robustness and reliability requirements for any closed loop power system controls. For instance, weather dependent sources such as distributed winds have the ability to provide services only within a narrow range and might not always be available due to weather, maintenance or communication failures.Given this background, the motivation of this work is to ensure power grid resiliency and improve overall grid reliability. The first consideration is the design of optimal decentralized controllers where decisions are based on a subset of total information. The second consideration is to design controllers that incorporate actuator limitations to guarantee the stability and performance of the system. The third consideration is to build robust controllers to ensure resiliency to different actuator failures and availabilities. The fourth consideration is to design distributed, fault-tolerant and cooperative controllers to address above issues at the same time. Finally, stability problem of these controllers with intermittent information transmission is investigated.To validate the feasibility and demonstrate the design principles, a set of comprehensive case studies are conducted based on different power system models including 39-bus New England system and modified Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) system with different operating points, renewable penetration and failures

Finite-time reliable nonfragile control for fractionalorder nonlinear systems with asymmetrical saturation and structured uncertainties

This paper investigates the finite-time stabilization problem of fractional-order nonlinear differential systems via an asymmetrically saturated reliable control in the sense of Caputo’s fractional derivative. In particular, an asymmetrical saturation control problem is converted to a symmetrical saturation control problem by using a linear matrix inequality framework criterion to achieve the essential results. Specifically, in this paper, we obtain two sets of sufficient conditions under different scenarios of structured uncertainty, namely, norm-bounded parametric uncertainty and linear fractional transformation uncertainty. The uncertainty considered in this paper is a combination of polytopic form and structured form. With the help of control theories of fractional-order system and linear matrix inequality technique, some sufficient criteria to ensure reliable finite-time stability of fractional-order differential systems by using the indirect Lyapunov approach are derived. As a final point, the derived criteria are numerically validated by means of examples based on financial fractional-order differential system and permanent magnet synchronous motor chaotic fractional-order differential system

H

This paper proposes a gain-scheduling control design strategy for a class of linear systems with the presence of both input saturation constraints and norm-bounded parametric uncertainty. LMI conditions are derived in order to obtain a gain-scheduled controller that ensures the robust stability and performance of the closed loop system. The main steps to obtain such a controller are given. Differently from other gain-scheduled approaches in the literature, this one focuses on the problem of H∞ loop shaping control design with input saturation nonlinearity and norm-bounded uncertainty to reduce the effect of the disturbance input on the controlled outputs. Here, the design problem has been formulated in the four-block H∞ synthesis framework, in which it is possible to describe the parametric uncertainty and the input saturation nonlinearity as perturbations to normalized coprime factors of the shaped plant. As a result, the shaped plant is represented as a linear parameter-varying (LPV) system while the norm-bounded uncertainty and input saturation are incorporated. This procedure yields a linear parameter-varying structure for the controller that ensures the stability of the polytopic LPV shaped plant from the vertex property. Finally, the effectiveness of the method is illustrated through application to a physical system: a VTOL “vertical taking-off landing” helicopter