An alternative approach to anti-windup in anticipation of actuator saturation

Traditionally, an anti-windup compensator is activated when control signal saturation occurs. An alternative approach is to activate the compensator at a level below that of the physical control constraints: the anti-windup compensator is activated in anticipation of actuator saturation. Recent studies have proposed systematic methods for the construction of such anticipatory anti-windup compensators, but a pseudo-LPV representation of the saturated system has been central to these results. This paper approaches the anticipatory anti-windup problem for open-loop stable plants using a 'non-square' sector condition, which is associated with a combination of deadzone nonlinearities. The advantage of this approach is that it leads to synthesis routines, which bear a close resemblance to those associated with traditional immediately activated anti-windup compensators. A by-product of this approach also appears to be that the arising compensators are better numerically conditioned. Some simulation examples illustrating the effectiveness of anticipatory anti-windup compensators and some comments on their wider use complete the paper

Anti-windup synthesis using Riccati equations

The aim of this paper is to give a novel solution to the full order anti-windup (AW) compensation problem for stable systems with input saturation. The solution is obtained by “completing the square” in three steps and requires the solution to a single bounded-real Riccati equation, characterized by the open-loop plant's norm. The Riccati equation plays the role of the LMIs usually found in anti-windup synthesis, but, in addition to its numerical advantages, it yields a family of anti-windup compensators with the same performance. This family of compensators is parameterized by a matrix which is intimately linked with both the poles of the anti-windup compensator and the robustness properties of the closed-loop saturated system. Thus, this matrix allows a robust anti-windup problem to be solved in a straightforward and intuitive manner. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is demonstrated on a simple example

Tractable stability analysis for systems containing repeated scalar slope-restricted nonlinearities

This paper proposes an LMI-based approach for studying the stability of feedback interconnections of a finite dimensional LTI system and a nonlinear element that consists of several identical scalar nonlinearities that have restrictions on their sector and slope. The results are based on the integral quadratic constraint stability analysis framework and other recent results that give a sharp characterisation of stability multipliers for monotone, repeated scalar nonlinearities. Several examples show the effectiveness of the proposed approach; the lack of conservatism in the results is noteworthy. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Biodiversidad 2016. Estado y Tendencias de la Biodiversidad Continental de Colombia

Esta tercera entrega del reporte anual de la biodiversidad en Colombia profundiza en la línea editorial iniciada el año 2014 mediante nuevas propuestas analíticas y gráficas, con la intención de garantizar que la información llegue a todos los públicos y pueda ser discutida de manera amena sin sacrificio de calidad. La apuesta comunicativa sigue siendo central en el proyecto institucional y los nuevos lenguajes con los que estamos aprendiendo a conversar con la sociedad y las instituciones son un experimento que esperamos sea cada vez más satisfactorio: ya estamos construyendo la versión 2017 con el apoyo de las nuevas tecnologías digitales de manera que la potencia de la conexión vital colombiana se exprese en toda su capacidad. Por los contenidos es evidente que aún distamos mucho de tener una capacidad de seguimiento sistemático para la mayoría de temas relativos a la gestión de la biodiversidad y los servicios ecosistémicos, la única manera de evaluar si las medidas de política y las inversiones que realiza la sociedad están teniendo los efectos deseados. De hecho, parte de las limitaciones reconocidas por robustamente los cambios positivos o negativos que afectan los diferentes niveles de organización de la vida planetaria, por lo cual las mismas metas de Aichi, nuestra carta de navegación global, están pendientes de verificación. Un propósito adicional de este proceso es la invitación a todos los colombianos para contribuir con la construcción y alimentación de los indicadores básicos de seguimiento a la gestión, ya que es imposible identificar las tendencias de largo plazo en que están inmersas la flora y fauna colombianas sin el apoyo de las instituciones, los investigadores y los ciudadanos: en el país de la megadiversidad, el reto es inmenso. Por este motivo, este reporte irá abriendo sus páginas a expertos, incluso indígenas o de comunidades locales, para que presenten de manera sistemática y documentada sus perspectivas del cambio ambiental y sus efectos en la biodiversidad, con el ánimo de promover el compromiso de todos en su gestión. La única manera de superar el riesgo de extinción es mediante un activo proceso de aprendizajes sociales que haga que todos los sectores asuman una parte de la compleja responsabilidad que significa proteger todas las formas de vida del país, una décima parte mal contada de las planetarias. Agradezco a las decenas de personas que contribuyeron con este reporte, a quienes nos han apoyado en todas las etapas de producción y a sus lectores y usuarios, quienes son en último término los jueces de su utilidad.Bogotá, D. C

Biodiversity 2016. Status and Trends of Colombian Continental Biodiversity

This third volume of the annual report on biodiversity in Colombia continues the editorial line that begun in 2014. Using novel analytical and graphic proposals, these reports have the goal of communicating the contents to a broad public, making it available for discussion without sacrificing the quality of information. The challenge of communication continues to be a major part of the institutional project, and the new languages with which we are learning to communicate with society and other institutions are an experiment that we expect to be increasingly gratifying. The report for 2017 is already under construction and it counts on new digital technologies so the power of a colombian vital connection may be entirely expressed. The included content evidences that we are still far away from having a systematic follow-up about most of the topics related to the management of biodiversity and ecosystem services, which is the only way to evaluate the effectiveness of policies and investments made by society. In fact, a limitation that is recognized is that of identifying positive or negative changes that affect different levels of organization of life on this planet; therefore, our global navigation route of the Aichi targets is still to be verified. An additional purpose of this process includes the invitation of all Colombians to contribute in constructing and maintaining basic monitoring indicators for management since it is impossible to identify long-term trends of flora and fauna in the country without the support of institutions, researchers, and citizens. This challenge is immense in a megadiverse country such as Colombia. For this reason, the report will continue to open its pages to experts, and even indigenous peoples or local communities, for them to present their perspectives about environmental change and its effects on biodiversity in a systematic and documented manner. This has the objective of stimulating the commitment of everyone in the management of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The only way of overcoming the risk of extinction is through the active process of social learning in which all sectors assume a part of the complex responsibility in protecting the forms of life of the country, a roughly counted tenth of all creatures on Earth. I thank all the people that contributed in this Report, those who have supported us in the phases of production, and all readers and users, who are the ultimate judges of its utility.Bogotá, D. C