Active actuator fault-tolerant control of a wind turbine benchmark model

This paper describes the design of an active fault-tolerant control scheme that is applied to the actuator of a wind turbine benchmark. The methodology is based on adaptive filters obtained via the nonlinear geometric approach, which allows to obtain interesting decoupling property with respect to uncertainty affecting the wind turbine system. The controller accommodation scheme exploits the on-line estimate of the actuator fault signal generated by the adaptive filters. The nonlinearity of the wind turbine model is described by the mapping to the power conversion ratio from tip-speed ratio and blade pitch angles. This mapping represents the aerodynamic uncertainty, and usually is not known in analytical form, but in general represented by approximated two-dimensional maps (i.e. look-up tables). Therefore, this paper suggests a scheme to estimate this power conversion ratio in an analytical form by means of a two-dimensional polynomial, which is subsequently used for designing the active fault-tolerant control scheme. The wind turbine power generating unit of a grid is considered as a benchmark to show the design procedure, including the aspects of the nonlinear disturbance decoupling method, as well as the viability of the proposed approach. Extensive simulations of the benchmark process are practical tools for assessing experimentally the features of the developed actuator fault-tolerant control scheme, in the presence of modelling and measurement errors. Comparisons with different fault-tolerant schemes serve to highlight the advantages and drawbacks of the proposed methodology

Reliable H∞ filtering for discrete time-delay systems with randomly occurred nonlinearities via delay-partitioning method

The official published version can be found at the link below.In this paper, the reliable H∞ filtering problem is investigated for a class of uncertain discrete time-delay systems with randomly occurred nonlinearities (RONs) and sensor failures. RONs are introduced to model a class of sector-like nonlinearities that occur in a probabilistic way according to a Bernoulli distributed white sequence with a known conditional probability. The failures of sensors are quantified by a variable varying in a given interval. The time-varying delay is unknown with given lower and upper bounds. The aim of the addressed reliable H∞ filtering problem is to design a filter such that, for all possible sensor failures, RONs, time-delays as well as admissible parameter uncertainties, the filtering error dynamics is asymptotically mean-square stable and also achieves a prescribed H∞ performance level. Sufficient conditions for the existence of such a filter are obtained by using a new Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional and delay-partitioning technique. The filter gains are characterized in terms of the solution to a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). A numerical example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design approach

AC voltage regulation of a bidirectional high-frequency link converter using a deadbeat controller

This paper presents a digital controller for AC voltage regulation of a bidirectional high-frequency link (BHFL) inverter using Deadbeat control. The proposed controller consists of inner current loop, outer voltage loop and a feed-forward controller, which imposes a gain scheduling effect according to the reference signal to compensate the steady-state error of the system. The main property of the proposed controller is that the current- and the voltage-loop controllers have the same structure, and use the same sampling period. This simplifies the design and implementation processes. To improve the overall performance of the system, additional disturbance decoupling networks are employed. This takes into account the model discretization effect. Therefore, accurate disturbance decoupling can be achieved, and the system robustness towards load variations is increased. To avoid transformer saturation due to low frequency voltage envelopes, an equalized pulse width modulation (PWM) technique has been introduced. The proposed controller has been realized using the DS1104 digital signal processor (DSP) from dSPACE. Its performances have been tested on a one kVA prototype inverter. Experimental results showed that the proposed controller has very fast dynamic and good steady-state responses even under highly nonlinear loads

H∞ and L2–L∞ filtering for two-dimensional linear parameter-varying systems

This is the post print version of the article. The official published version can be obtained from the link below - Copyright 2007 Wiley-BlackwellIn this paper, the H∞ and l2–l∞ filtering problem is investigated for two-dimensional (2-D) discrete-time linear parameter-varying (LPV) systems. Based on the well-known Fornasini–Marchesini local state-space (FMLSS) model, the mathematical model of 2-D systems under consideration is established by incorporating the parameter-varying phenomenon. The purpose of the problem addressed is to design full-order H∞ and l2–l∞ filters such that the filtering error dynamics is asymptotic stable and the prescribed noise attenuation levels in H∞ and l2–l∞ senses can be achieved, respectively. Sufficient conditions are derived for existence of such filters in terms of parameterized linear matrix inequalities (PLMIs), and the corresponding filter synthesis problem is then transformed into a convex optimization problem that can be efficiently solved by using standard software packages. A simulation example is exploited to demonstrate the usefulness and effectiveness of the proposed design method

Adaptive Signal Processing Strategy for a Wind Farm System Fault Accommodation

In order to improve the availability of offshore wind farms, thus avoiding unplanned operation and maintenance costs, which can be high for offshore installations, the accommodation of faults in their earlier occurrence is fundamental. This paper addresses the design of an active fault tolerant control scheme that is applied to a wind park benchmark of nine wind turbines, based on their nonlinear models, as well as the wind and interactions between the wind turbines in the wind farm. Note that, due to the structure of the system and its control strategy, it can be considered as a fault tolerant cooperative control problem of an autonomous plant. The controller accommodation scheme provides the on-line estimate of the fault signals generated by nonlinear filters exploiting the nonlinear geometric approach to obtain estimates decoupled from both model uncertainty and the interactions among the turbines. This paper proposes also a data-driven approach to provide these disturbance terms in analytical forms, which are subsequently used for designing the nonlinear filters for fault estimation. This feature of the work, followed by the simpler solution relying on a data-driven approach, can represent the key point when on-line implementations are considered for a viable application of the proposed scheme

Robust shape control in a sendzimir cold-rolling steel mill

The shape control problem for a Sendzimir 20-roll cold rolling steel mill is characterised by operation over a wide range of conditions arising from roll changes, changes in rolling schedules and changes in material gauge, width and hardness. Previous approaches to the problem suggest storing a large number of precompensator matrices to cater for the full range of operating conditions. This paper, on the other hand, attempts to synthesise a controller which is optimally robust to changes in the conditions associated with the rolling cluster, resulting in a reduced storage requirement for the controlling computer. The performance of the robust controller is evaluated via nonlinear simulation

Integrability for Nonlinear Time-Delay Systems

In this note, the notion of integrability is defined for 1-forms defined in the time-delay context. While in the delay-free case, a set of 1-forms defines a vector space, it is shown that 1-forms computed for time-delay systems have to be viewed as elements of a module over a certain non-commutative polynomial ring. Two notions of integrability are defined, strong and weak integrability, which coincide in the delay-free case. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given to check if a set of 1-forms is strongly or weakly integrable. To show the importance of the topic, integrability of 1-forms is used to characterize the accessibility property for nonlinear time-delay systems. The possibility of transforming a system into a certain normal form is also considered

Study of dynamics of X-14B VTOL aircraft

Research was initiated to investigate certain facets of modern control theory and their integration with a digital computer to provide a tractable flight control system for a VTOL aircraft. Since the hover mode is the most demanding phase in the operation of a VTOL aircraft, the research efforts were concentrated in this mode of aircraft operation. Research work on three different aspects of the operation of the X-14B VTOL aircraft is discussed. A general theory for optimal, prespecified, closed-loop control is developed. The ultimate goal was optimal decoupling of the modes of the VTOL aircraft to simplify the pilot's task of handling the aircraft. Modern control theory is used to design deterministic state estimators which provide state variables not measured directly, but which are needed for state variable feedback control. The effect of atmospheric turbulence on the X-14B is investigated. A maximum magnitude gust envelope within which the aircraft could operate stably with the available control power is determined

Observer-based networked control for continuous-time systems with random sensor delays

This is the post print version of the article. The official published version can be obtained from the link - Copyright 2009 Elsevier LtdThis paper is concerned with the networked control system design for continuous-time systems with random measurement, where the measurement channel is assumed to subject to random sensor delay. A design scheme for the observer-based output feedback controller is proposed to render the closed-loop networked system exponentially mean-square stable with H∞ performance requirement. The technique employed is based on appropriate delay systems approach combined with a matrix variable decoupling technique. The design method is fulfilled through solving linear matrix inequalities. A numerical example is used to verify the effectiveness and the merits of the present results.This paper was not presented at any IFAC meeting. This paper was recommended for publication in revised form by Associate Editor George Yin under the direction of Editor Ian R. Petersen. This work was supported in part by the Royal Society of the UK, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (60774047, 60674055) and the Taishan Scholar Programs Foundation of Shandong Province, China