Tuning and Implementation Variants of Discrete-Time ADRC

Practical implementations of active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) will almost always take place in discretized form. Since applications may have quite different needs regarding their discrete-time controllers, this article summarizes and extends the available set of ADRC implementations to provide a suitable variant for as many as possible use cases. In doing so, the gap between quasi-continuous and discrete-time controller tuning is being closed for applications with low sampling frequencies. The main contribution of this article is the derivation of three different discrete-time implementations of error-based ADRC. It is shown that these are almost one-to-one counterparts of existing output-based implementations, to the point where transfer functions and coefficients can be reused in unaltered form. In this way, error-based implementations become firmly rooted in the established landscape of discrete-time ADRC. Furthermore, it becomes possible to equip error-based variants with windup protection abilities known from output-based ADRC

Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) Toolbox for MATLAB/Simulink

In this study, an active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) toolbox for MATLAB/Simulink is introduced. Although ADRC has already been established as a powerful robust control framework with successful industrial implementations and strong theoretical foundations, a comprehensive tool for computer-aided design of ADRC has not been developed until now. The proposed open-source ADRC Toolbox is a response to the growing need in the scientific community and the control industry for a straightforward software application of the ADRC methodology. Its main purpose is to fill the gap between the current theories and applications of ADRC and to provide an easy-to-use solution for users in various control fields who want to employ the ADRC scheme in their applications. The ADRC Toolbox contains a single, general-purpose, drag-and-drop function block that allows the synthesis of a predefined ADRC-based strategy with minimal design effort. Additionally, its open structure allows creation of custom control solutions. The efficacy of the ADRC Toolbox is validated through both simulations and hardware experiments, which were conducted using a variety of problems known in the motion, process, and power control areas.Comment: 43 pages, 16 figures, 3 table

Robust converter-fed motor control based on active rejection of multiple disturbances

In this work, an advanced motion controller is proposed for buck converter-fed DC motor systems. The design is based on an idea of active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) with its key component being a custom observer capable of reconstructing various types of disturbances (including complex, harmonic signals). A special formulation of the proposed design allows the control action to be expressed in a concise and practically appealing form reducing its implementation requirements. The obtained experimental results show increased performance of the introduced approach over conventionally used methods in tracking precision and disturbance rejection, while keeping similar level of energy consumption. A stability analysis using theory of singular perturbation further supports the validity of proposed control approach.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl

Nonlinear Extended State Observer based Active Disturbance Rejection Control of a Laser Seeker System

In this paper, the laser seeker control problem is solved in the framework of active disturbance rejection control (ADRC). The considered problem, which consists of laser seeker stabilisation and target tracking, is expressed here as a regulation problem. A nonlinear extended state observer (NESO) with varying gains is used to improve the performance of linear ESO (LESO), and thus enable better control performance in both transient period and steady-state, with lower control effort. Based on a detailed analysis of system disturbances, a special ADRC tuning method is proposed. The stability of the overall control structure is analysed with a description function method. Through comparative simulations LESO-based and the introduced NESO-based ADRC for the laser seeker system, the advantages of the proposed scheme are shown

On a Novel Tracking Differentiator Design Based on Iterative Learning in a Moving Window

Differential signals are key in control engineering as they anticipate future behavior of process variables and therefore are critical in formulating control laws such as proportional-integral-derivative (PID). The practical challenge, however, is to extract such signals from noisy measurements and this difficulty is addressed first by J. Han in the form of linear and nonlinear tracking differentiator (TD). While improvements were made, TD did not completely resolve the conflict between the noise sensitivity and the accuracy and timeliness of the differentiation. The two approaches proposed in this paper start with the basic linear TD, but apply iterative learning mechanism to the historical data in a moving window (MW), to form two new iterative learning tracking differentiators (IL-TD): one is a parallel IL-TD using an iterative ladder network structure which is implementable in analog circuits; the other a serial IL-TD which is implementable digitally on any computer platform. Both algorithms are validated in simulations which show that the proposed two IL-TDs have better tracking differentiation and de-noise performance compared to the existing linear TD

On Dealing with Harmonic Uncertainties in the Class of Active Disturbance Rejection Controllers

Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. In this work, the problem of governing systems subjected to harmonic uncertainties is addressed. An active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) framework is proposed here with a key component being a novel resonant extended state observer (RESO). In contrary to the conventional ADRC-based solutions, the introduced one gives the ability to directly estimate and mitigate the influence of harmonic uncertainties. By structuring the whole observer-centred control topology into one degree-of-freedom, compact, feedback error-form (similar to industry-proven PID), the proposed approach can be straightforwardly implemented and commissioned across popular industrial control platforms. Its effectiveness is systematically analysed in terms of tracking accuracy, disturbance rejection and noise sensitivity. The new technique is generalised for the class of nonlinear control-affine systems and expressed with three special forms, each one providing certain advantages to control design. Additionally, an experimental case study is conducted, showing superior performance of the proposed solution against a conventional one. Finally, the stability of the developed approach is rigorously proved using singular perturbation theory

Continuous dynamic sliding mode control of converter-fed DC motor system with high order mismatched disturbance compensation

The combination of DC-DC buck power converters with DC motors for generating the so-called smooth start of drives has many advantages in engineering practice. Achieving high performance of such systems is, however, limited by the influence of disturbances/uncertainties of multiple sources. Some of the disturbances are mismatched, which makes them even more difficult to handle. Furthermore, the relatively high order of system dynamics makes the control design challenging. In this paper, a control structure with continuous dynamic sliding mode controller with a finite-time disturbance observer is proposed to address these practical issues. First, a special state transformation is applied, aggregating the acting disturbances/uncertainties in a sole perturbing term of the system expressed in new coordinates. Then, the observer estimates in real time the information about the lumped disturbances based on already available input/output signals and the obtained estimated signals (and their high order time-derivatives) are used to construct a sliding surface. Finally, the sliding mode controller is applied to achieve high performance of the resultant plant dynamics and to robustify the governing scheme against modelling discrepancies. The stability of the closed-loop system is proved here using Lyapunov stability theory and the efficiency of the proposed control method is validated through a multi-criteria numerical simulation. </p

Active Disturbance Rejection Control of Torsional Plant with Unknown Frequency Harmonic Disturbance

In this work, a new robust control algorithm is introduced for uncertain systems with harmonic disturbances of unknown frequencies. The proposed solution works under the active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) framework and utilizes a specialized observer for sinusoidal uncertainties, aided with an on-line harmonic disturbance frequency estimator. The entire governing structure is derived in a convenient error-based domain, easily deployable in various industrial control software. The idea behind the introduced approach is general, but is conveyed here using solely a three degrees-of-freedom torsional system, which is considered a benchmark for vibration phenomenon in many mechanical systems. The efficacy of the proposed control scheme is validated with a set of experiments on a laboratory testbed and a theoretical analysis based on theory of singular perturbation

Active Disturbance Rejection Strategy for Distance and Formation Angle Decentralized Control in Differential-Drive Mobile Robots

The important practical problem of robust synchronization in distance and orientation for a class of differential-drive mobile robots is tackled in this work as an active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) problem. To solve it, a kinematic model of the governed system is first developed based on the distance and formation angle between the agents. Then, a special high-order extended state observer is designed to collectively estimate the perturbations (formed by longitudinal and lateral slipping parameters) that affect the kinematic model. Finally, a custom error-based ADRC approach is designed and applied assuming that the distance and orientation between the agents are the only available measurements. The proposed control strategy does not need time-derivatives of the reference trajectory, which increases the practical appeal of the proposed solution. The experimental results, obtained in laboratory conditions with a set of differential-drive mobile robots operating in a leader&ndash;follower configuration, show the effectiveness of the proposed governing scheme in terms of trajectory tracking and disturbance rejection