Nonlinear disturbance observer-based control for multi-input multi-output nonlinear systems subject to mismatching condition

For a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear system, the existing disturbance observer-based control (DOBC) only provides solutions to those whose disturbance relative degree (DRD) is higher than or equal to its input relative degree. By designing a novel disturbance compensation gain matrix, a generalised nonlinear DOBC method is proposed in this article to solve the disturbance attenuation problem of the MIMO nonlinear system with arbitrary DRD. It is shown that the disturbances are able to be removed from the output channels by the proposed method with appropriately chosen control parameters. The property of nominal performance recovery, which is the major merit of the DOBCs, is retained with the proposed method. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are demonstrated by simulation studies of both the numerical and application examples

Robust autopilot design of uncertain bank-to-turn missiles using state-space disturbance observers

Robust autopilot design for bank-to-turn (BTT) missiles under disturbances and uncertainties is investigated in this article using the disturbance observer concept. It is well known that the BTT missile dynamics undergo substantial change during its flight. In this disturbance observer-based control (DOBC) setting, the influences caused by parameter variations are merged into disturbance terms and regarded as parts of the lumped disturbances. Disturbance observers are employed to estimate the lumped disturbances, and then a disturbance observer-based robust control (DOBRC) method is proposed in this article to compensate the influences of parameter variations and the disturbances from the output channels. Similar to the baseline linear quadratic regulator design, the DOBRC is analysed and designed using linear techniques. Very promising performance has been achieved for the BTT missile as shown in simulation. It is demonstrated that DOBC approach provides a simple, intuitive, and practical solution for many challenging control problems where systems are subject to significant external disturbances, and uncertainties such as BTT missiles

A new alternating predictive observer approach for higher bandwidth control of dual-rate dynamic systems

Dual-rate dynamic systems consisting of a sensor with a relatively slow sampling rate and a controller/actuator with a fast updating rate widely exist in control systems. The control bandwidth of these dual-rate dynamic systems is severely restricted by the slow sampling rate of the sensors, resulting in various issues like sluggish dynamics of the closed-loop systems, poor robustness performance. A novel alternating predictive observer (APO) is proposed to significantly enhance the control bandwidth of a generic dual-rate dynamic systems. Specifically, at each fast controller/actuator updating period, we will first implement the prediction step by using the system model to predict the system output, generating a so-called virtual measurement, when there is no output measurement during the slow sampling period. Subsequently, the observation step is carried out by exploiting this virtual measurement as informative update. An APO-based output feedback controller with a fast updating rate is developed and rigorous stability of the closed-loop system is established. The superiority of the proposed method is demonstrated by applying it to control a permanent magnet synchronous motor system.</p

Generalized extended state observer based control for systems with mismatched uncertainties

The standard extended state observer based control (ESOBC) method is only applicable for a class of single-input-single-output essential-integral-chain systems with matched uncertainties. It is noticed that systems with nonintegral-chain form and mismatched uncertainties are more general and widely exist in practical engineering systems, where the standard ESOBC method is no longer available. To this end, it is imperative to explore new ESOBC approach for these systems to extend its applicability. By appropriately choosing a disturbance compensation gain, a generalized ESOBC (GESOBC) method is proposed for nonintegral-chain systems subject to mismatched uncertainties without any coordinate transformations. The proposed method is able to extend to multi-input-multi-output systems with almost no modification. Both numerical and application design examples demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed method

Output-based disturbance rejection control for non-linear uncertain systems with unknown frequency disturbances using an observer backstepping approach

This study is concerned with the output feedback control design for a class of non-linear uncertain systems subject to multiple sources of disturbances including model uncertainties, unknown constant disturbances, harmonic disturbances with unknown frequency and amplitude. The total disturbances and uncertainties are delicately represented by a compact exogenous model first. By incorporating the adaptive internal model principle, a set of dynamic estimators are developed for both state and disturbance observations. By means of observer backstepping technique, a composite output feedback controller is constructed based on the disturbance and state estimations. The stability of the closedloop system is rigorously established based on Lyapunov stability criterion. A missile roll stabilisation example is finally investigated to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach

Nonlinearity estimator-based control of a class of uncertain nonlinear systems

The robust control problem of a class of nonlinear systems subject to external disturbances, control gain uncertainty and nonlinear uncertainties is investigated in this paper using a nonlinearity estimator-based control approach. Different from the existing results, the crucial but highly restrictive hypothesis on the boundedness of nonlinear uncertainties is removed from this paper by means of the tools of semi-global stabilization. By delicately constructing a specific composite Lyapunov function for the closed-loop system as well as several useful level sets, the rigorous qualitative robustness performance is presented for the closed-loop system. Finally, an example of a singlelink manipulator is utilized to demonstrate the performance specification claimed by the theoretical analysis

Disturbance rejection for nonlinear uncertain systems with output measurement errors: Application to a helicopter model

As a virtual sensor, disturbance observer provides an alternative approach to reconstruct lumped disturbances (including external disturbances and system uncertainties) based upon system states/outputs measured by physical sensors. Not surprisingly, measurement errors bring adverse effects on the control performance and even the stability of the closed-loop system. Toward this end, this paper investigates the problem of disturbance observer based control for a class of disturbed uncertain nonlinear systems in the presence of unknown output measurement errors. Instead of inheriting from the estimation-error-driven structure of Luenberger type observer, the proposed disturbance observer only explicitly uses the control input. It has been proved that the proposed method endows the closed-loop system with strong robustness against output measurement errors and system uncertainties. With rigorous analysis under the semiglobal stability criterion, the guideline of gain choice based upon the proposed structure is provided. To better demonstrate feature and validity of the proposed method, numerical simulation and comparative experiments of a helicopter model are implemented

Disturbance/uncertainty estimation and attenuation techniques in PMSM drives–a survey

This paper gives a comprehensive overview on disturbance/uncertainty estimation and attenuation (DUEA) techniques in permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives. Various disturbances and uncertainties in PMSM and also other alternating current (AC) motor drives are first reviewed which shows they have different behaviors and appear in different control loops of the system. The existing DUEA and other relevant control methods in handling disturbances and uncertainties widely used in PMSM drives, and their latest developments are then discussed and summarized. It also provides in-depth analysis of the relationship between these advanced control methods in the context of PMSM systems. When dealing with uncertainties,it is shown that DUEA has a different but complementary mechanism to widely used robust control and adaptive control. The similarities and differences in disturbance attenuation of DUEA and other promising methods such as internal model control and output regulation theory have been analyzed in detail. The wide applications of these methods in different AC motor drives (in particular in PMSM drives) are categorized and summarized. Finally the paper ends with the discussion on future directions in this area

Disturbance observer based control for nonlinear MAGLEV suspension system

This paper investigates the disturbance rejection problem of nonlinear MAGnetic LEViation (MAGLEV) suspension system with “mismatching” disturbances. Here “mismatching” refers to the disturbances that enter the system via different channel to the control input. The disturbance referring in this paper is mainly on load variation and unmodeled nonlinear dynamics. By linearizing the nonlinear MAGLEV suspension model, a linear state-space disturbance observer (DOB) is designed to estimate the lumped “mismatching” disturbances. A new disturbance compensation control method based on the estimate of DOB is proposed to solve the disturbance attenuation problem. The efficacy of the proposed approach for rejecting given disturbance is illustrated via simulations on realistic track input

On the actuator dynamics of dynamic control allocation for a small fixed-wing UAV with direct lift control

A novel dynamic control allocation method is proposed for a small fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), whose flaps can be actuated as fast as other control surfaces, offering an extra way of changing the lift directly. The actuator dynamics of this kind of UAVs, which may be sluggish comparing to the UAV dynamics, should also be considered in the control design. To this end, a hierarchical control allocation architecture is developed. A disturbance observer based high-level tracking controller is first designed to accommodate the lagging effect ofthe actuators and to compensate the adverse effect of external disturbances. Then, a dynamic control allocator based on a receding-horizon performance index is developed, which forces the actuator state in the low-level to follow the optimised reference. Compared to the conventional control allocation method that assumes ideal actuators with infinite bandwidths, higher tracking accuracy of the UAV and better energy efficiency can be achieved by the proposed method. Stability analysis and high fidelity simulations both demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, which can be deployed on different fixed-wing UAVs with flaps to achieve better performance.</div