Bond graphs in model matching control

Bond graphs are primarily used in the network modeling of lumped parameter physical systems, but controller design with this graphical technique is relatively unexplored. It is shown that bond graphs can be used as a tool for certain model matching control designs. Some basic facts on the nonlinear model matching problem are recalled. The model matching problem is then associated with a particular disturbance decoupling problem, and it is demonstrated that bicausal assignment methods for bond graphs can be applied to solve the disturbance decoupling problem as to meet the model matching objective. The adopted bond graph approach is presented through a detailed example, which shows that the obtained controller induces port-Hamiltonian error dynamics. As a result, the closed loop system has an associated standard bond graph representation, thereby rendering energy shaping and damping injection possible from within a graphical context

Storage Device Sizing for a Hybrid Railway Traction System by Means of Bicausal Bond Graphs

In this paper, the application of bicausal bond graphs for system design in electrical engineering is emphasized. In particular, it is shown how this approach is very useful for model inversion and parameter dimensioning. To illustrate these issues, a hybrid railway traction device is considered as a case study. The synthesis of a storage device (a supercapacitor) included in this system is then discussed

Predictive feedback control and Fitts' law

Fitts’ law is a well established empirical formula, known for encapsulating the “speed-accuracy trade-off”. For discrete, manual movements from a starting location to a target, Fitts’ law relates movement duration to the distance moved and target size. The widespread empirical success of the formula is suggestive of underlying principles of human movement control. There have been previous attempts to relate Fitts’ law to engineering-type control hypotheses and it has been shown that the law is exactly consistent with the closed-loop step-response of a time-delayed, first-order system. Assuming only the operation of closed-loop feedback, either continuous or intermittent, this paper asks whether such feedback should be predictive or not predictive to be consistent with Fitts law. Since Fitts’ law is equivalent to a time delay separated from a first-order system, known control theory implies that the controller must be predictive. A predictive controller moves the time-delay outside the feedback loop such that the closed-loop response can be separated into a time delay and rational function whereas a non- predictive controller retains a state delay within feedback loop which is not consistent with Fitts’ law. Using sufficient parameters, a high-order non-predictive controller could approximately reproduce Fitts’ law. However, such high-order, “non-parametric” controllers are essentially empirical in nature, without physical meaning, and therefore are conceptually inferior to the predictive controller. It is a new insight that using closed-loop feedback, prediction is required to physically explain Fitts’ law. The implication is that prediction is an inherent part of the “speed-accuracy trade-off”

Intermittent control models of human standing: similarities and differences

Two architectures of intermittent control are compared and contrasted in the context of the single inverted pendulum model often used for describing standing in humans. The architectures are similar insofar as they use periods of open-loop control punctuated by switching events when crossing a switching surface to keep the system state trajectories close to trajectories leading to equilibrium. The architectures differ in two significant ways. Firstly, in one case, the open-loop control trajectory is generated by a system-matched hold, and in the other case, the open-loop control signal is zero. Secondly, prediction is used in one case but not the other. The former difference is examined in this paper. The zero control alternative leads to periodic oscillations associated with limit cycles; whereas the system-matched control alternative gives trajectories (including homoclinic orbits) which contain the equilibrium point and do not have oscillatory behaviour. Despite this difference in behaviour, it is further shown that behaviour can appear similar when either the system is perturbed by additive noise or the system-matched trajectory generation is perturbed. The purpose of the research is to come to a common approach for understanding the theoretical properties of the two alternatives with the twin aims of choosing which provides the best explanation of current experimental data (which may not, by itself, distinguish beween the two alternatives) and suggesting future experiments to distinguish between the two alternatives

Emulator-Based Control for Actuator-Based Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing, Control Engineering Practice

Abstract Hardware-in-the-loop (HWiL) is a form of component testing where hardware components a linked with software models. In order to test mechanical components an additional transfer system is required to link the software and hardware subsystems. The transfer system typically comprises of sensors and actuators and the dynamic effects of these components need to be eliminated to give accurate results. In this paper an emulator-based control strategy is presented for actuator based HWiL. Emulator-based control can solve the twin problems of stability and fidelity caused by the unwanted transfer system (actuator) dynamics. Significantly EBC can emulate the inverse of a transfer system which is not causally invertible, allowing a wider range of more complex transfer systems to be controlled. A robustness analysis is given and experimental results presented

Construction and analysis of causally dynamic hybrid bond graphs

Engineering systems are frequently abstracted to models with discontinuous behaviour (such as a switch or contact), and a hybrid model is one which contains continuous and discontinuous behaviours. Bond graphs are an established physical modelling method, but there are several methods for constructing switched or ‘hybrid’ bond graphs, developed for either qualitative ‘structural’ analysis or efficient numerical simulation of engineering systems. This article proposes a general hybrid bond graph suitable for both. The controlled junction is adopted as an intuitive way of modelling a discontinuity in the model structure. This element gives rise to ‘dynamic causality’ that is facilitated by a new bond graph notation. From this model, the junction structure and state equations are derived and compared to those obtained by existing methods. The proposed model includes all possible modes of operation and can be represented by a single set of equations. The controlled junctions manifest as Boolean variables in the matrices of coefficients. The method is more compact and intuitive than existing methods and dispenses with the need to derive various modes of operation from a given reference representation. Hence, a method has been developed, which can reach common usage and form a platform for further study

Dynamically dual vibration absorbers: a bond graph approach to vibration control

This paper investigates the use of an actuator and sensor pair coupled via a control system to damp out oscillations in resonant mechanical systems. Specifically the designs emulate passive control strategies, resulting in controller dynamics that resemble a physical system. Here, the use of the novel dynamically dual approach is proposed to design the vibration absorbers to be implemented as the controller dynamics; this gives rise to the dynamically dual vibration absorber (DDVA). It is shown that the method is a natural generalisation of the classical single-degree of freedom mass–spring–damper vibration absorber and also of the popular acceleration feedback controller. This generalisation is applicable to the vibration control of arbitrarily complex resonant dynamical systems. It is further shown that the DDVA approach is analogous to the hybrid numerical-experimental testing technique known as substructuring. This analogy enables methods and results, such as robustness to sensor/actuator dynamics, to be applied to dynamically dual vibration absorbers. Illustrative experiments using both a hinged rigid beam and a flexible cantilever beam are presented

A unified parameter identification method for nonlinear time-delay systems

This paper deals with the problem of identifying unknown time-delays and model parameters in a general nonlinear time-delay system. We propose a unified computational approach that involves solving a dynamic optimization problem, whose cost function measures the discrepancy between predicted and observed system output, to determine optimal values for the unknown quantities. Our main contribution is to show that the partial derivatives of this cost function can be computed by solving a set of auxiliary time-delay systems. On this basis, the parameter identification problem can be solved using existing gradient-based optimization techniques. We conclude the paper with two numerical simulations

Data-Driven Modelling of the Inositol Trisphosphate Receptor (IPR) and its Role in Calcium-Induced Calcium Release (CICR)

We review the current state of the art of data-driven modelling of the inositol trisphosphate receptor (IPR). After explaining that the IPR plays a crucial role as a central regulator in calcium dynamics, several sources of relevant experimental data are introduced. Single ion channels are best studied by recording single-channel currents under different ligand concentrations via the patch-clamp technique. The particular relevance of modal gating, the spontaneous switching between different levels of channel activity that occur even at constant ligand concentrations, is highlighted. In order to investigate the interactions of IPRs, calcium release from small clusters of channels, so-called calcium puffs, can be used. We then present the mathematical framework common to all models based on single-channel data, aggregated continuous-time Markov models, and give a short review of statistical approaches for parameterising these models with experimental data. The process of building a Markov model that integrates various sources of experimental data is illustrated using two recent examples, the model by Ullah et al. and the “Park–Drive” model by Siekmann et al. (Biophys. J. 2012), the only models that account for all sources of data currently available. Finally, it is demonstrated that the essential features of the Park–Drive model in different models of calcium dynamics are preserved after reducing it to a two-state model that only accounts for the switching between the inactive “park” and the active “drive” modes. This highlights the fact that modal gating is the most important mechanism of ligand regulation in the IPR. It also emphasises that data-driven models of ion channels do not necessarily have to lead to detailed models but can be constructed so that relevant data is selected to represent ion channels at the appropriate level of complexity for a given application

Balancing with Vibration: A Prelude for “Drift and Act” Balance Control

Stick balancing at the fingertip is a powerful paradigm for the study of the control of human balance. Here we show that the mean stick balancing time is increased by about two-fold when a subject stands on a vibrating platform that produces vertical vibrations at the fingertip (0.001 m, 15–50 Hz). High speed motion capture measurements in three dimensions demonstrate that vibration does not shorten the neural latency for stick balancing or change the distribution of the changes in speed made by the fingertip during stick balancing, but does decrease the amplitude of the fluctuations in the relative positions of the fingertip and the tip of the stick in the horizontal plane, A(x,y). The findings are interpreted in terms of a time-delayed “drift and act” control mechanism in which controlling movements are made only when controlled variables exceed a threshold, i.e. the stick survival time measures the time to cross a threshold. The amplitude of the oscillations produced by this mechanism can be decreased by parametric excitation. It is shown that a plot of the logarithm of the vibration-induced increase in stick balancing skill, a measure of the mean first passage time, versus the standard deviation of the A(x,y) fluctuations, a measure of the distance to the threshold, is linear as expected for the times to cross a threshold in a stochastic dynamical system. These observations suggest that the balanced state represents a complex time–dependent state which is situated in a basin of attraction that is of the same order of size. The fact that vibration amplitude can benefit balance control raises the possibility of minimizing risk of falling through appropriate changes in the design of footwear and roughness of the walking surfaces