High order disturbance observer design for linear and nonlinear systems

© 2015 IEEE. In this paper, a disturbance observer is proposed for nonlinear systems with high order disturbance, where not only disturbance but also its high order derivatives are estimated. The relationship of the proposed observer with the existing results is discussed. Then, the result is further extended to the case of minimal-order output-based disturbance observer design for linear systems subject to high order disturbances. Two practical examples about actuator fault diagnosis for a nonlinear missile system and disturbance estimation for a double-effect pilot plant evaporator system with unobservable states are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches

Reduced-order disturbance observer design for discrete-time linear stochastic systems

The conventional disturbance observers for discrete-time linear stochastic systems assume that the system states are fully estimable and the disturbance estimate is dependent on the estimated system states, hereafter termed Full-Order Disturbance Observers (FODOs). This paper investigates the design of Reduced-Order Disturbance Observers (RODOs) when the system state variables are not fully estimable. An existence condition of RODO is established, which is shown to be more easily satisfied than that of the conventional FODOs and consequently it has substantially extended the scope of applications of disturbance observer theory. Then a set of recursive formulae for the RODO is developed for on-line applications. Finally, it is furth er shown that the conventional FODOs are a special case of the proposed RODO in the sense that the former reduces to the RODO when the states become fully estimable in the presence of disturbances. Examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed approach

Disturbance observer design for nonlinear systems represented by input-output models

A new approach to the design of nonlinear disturbance observers for a class of nonlinear systems described by inputoutput differential equations is presented in this paper. In contrast with established forms of nonlinear disturbance observers, the most important feature of this new type of disturbance observer is that only measurement of the output variable is required, rather than the state variables. An inverse simulation model is first constructed based on knowledge of the structure and parameters of a conventional model of the system. The disturbance can then be estimated by comparing the output of the inverse model and the input of the original nonlinear system. Mathematical analysis demonstrates the convergence of this new form of nonlinear disturbance observer. The approach has been applied to disturbance estimation for a linear system and a new form of linear disturbance observer has been developed. The differences between the proposed linear disturbance observer and the conventional form of frequency-domain disturbance observer are discussed through a numerical example. Finally, the nonlinear disturbance observer design method is illustrated through an application involving a simulation of a jacketed continuous stirred tank reactor syste

Disturbance Observer: Design and Flight Test of a Large Envelope Flight Controller

A new flight controller was evaluated through piloted simulation and flight test conducted at the USAF Test Pilot School. The controller, commonly called a disturbance observer, uses inertial sensor feedback routed through a simple control architecture that acts to force the desired response while rejecting sensor noise and atmospheric disturbances. The investigation included both handling qualities testing in the Octonian simulator at the Air Force Research Laboratories Air Vehicle Directorate, and initial flight test conducted as part of a Test Management Project at the USAF TPS. Simulation produced positive results with desired performance throughout a wide flight envelope. In addition, the desired response of the aircraft was easily modified by changing variables within the controller. Flight test was conducted on the Variable-stability In-flight Simulator and Test Aircraft (VISTA). Twelve test sorties totaling 16.4 flight hours were conducted and culminated in multiple landings at Edwards AFB, CA. Time delay inherent in the VISTA resulted in the requirement to gain down the control surface command signal. Sensor noise was amplified and caused a control surface ‘buzz.” Flying qualities exhibited lower damping and frequency than ‘desired’ yet were consistent throughout a larger flight envelope. Post flight analysis resulted in the determination of ways to reduce the noise causing the ‘buzz’ and improve the flying qualities by adjusting the controller’s ‘desired dynamics.

Disturbance observer based control for nonlinear systems

This paper presents a general framework for nonlinear systems subject to disturbances using disturbance observer based control (DOBC)techniques. A two-stage design procedure to improve disturbance attenuation ability of current linear/nonlinear controllers is proposed where the disturbance observer design is separated from the controller design. To facilitate this concept, a nonlinear disturbance observer is developed for disturbances generated by an exogenous system, and global exponential stability is established under certain condition. Furthermore, semiglobal stability condition of the composite controller consisting of a nonlinear controller and the nonlinear disturbance observer is established. The developed method is illustrated by the application to control of a two-link robotic manipulator

Attenuation of disturbances introduced by dynamic links in precision motion systems using model-based observers

This paper presents an extension to the Unknown Input Disturbance Observer (UIDO) and the Disturbance Estimation Filter (DEF). This extension enables the inclusion of the mechanics of dynamic links to the observer model, in order to attenuate the specific disturbances introduced by those dynamic links. A design method of the state space feedback gain based on the dynamics, and an observer gain based on basic Kalman filter theory is given. It is shown how the observer is designed for a practical example; the cable schlepp within the wafer stage of a lithography machine. Using a simple model of the cable schlepp the disturbance observer design has been validated with an experiment on an actual machin

Data driven disturbance observer design and control for diesel engine airpath

Diesel engine airpath is a popular nonlinear control plant in the literature. Airpath is one of the key elements for engine out emissions control of the diesel engines. Its robust control requires controller design based on a nonlinear model of a system. Analytical model based control approaches are common in the literature. This study presents discrete sliding mode control and data driven disturbance observer design for diesel engine airpath. Identification tests and controller performance are simulated in a modeling environment where disturbance rejection capability of the developed control system is also characterized

Disturbance Observer Design for Controlling the Speed of Three Phase Induction Motor

Induction Motor is a type of motor that is most widely used in industry compared to other electrical motors,  because this type of motor has several advantages such as construction simplicity, sturdiness, cheap prices and low maintenance need. But the main challenge is to keep the speed remain constant when the induction motor is given many various values of load until particular value of the load nominal is given, so the response of the motor will change varily even if a controller has been given, thus controlling the speed of three phase induction motor is much more difficult to do. Therefore, in this research, we applied Disturbance Observer (DOB) method using Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller. This method was chosen because it can automatically reduce or even eliminate the disturbance, which is in the form of load and the measurement noise. The use of PID controller was expected to enhance the motor’s time settling. The test result of the Disturbance Observer method shows that it can reduce the measurement noise in every loading scenario. While the simulation result shows that the response of PID controller + DOB are capable of approaching the nominal load response with a response specification of 0.1 % of plant error, overshoot or undershoot of 1.5 %, time settling (ts) 5 % by 7.1 seconds and time rises (tr) of 2.2 seconds

Immersion and Invariance-based Disturbance Observer and Its Application to Safe Control

When the disturbance input matrix is nonlinear, existing disturbance observer design methods rely on the solvability of a partial differential equation or the existence of an output function with a uniformly well-defined disturbance relative degree, which can pose significant limitations. This note introduces a systematic approach for designing an Immersion and Invariance-based Disturbance Observer (IIDOB) that circumvents these strong assumptions. The proposed IIDOB ensures the disturbance estimation error is globally uniformly ultimately bounded by approximately solving a partial differential equation while compensating for the approximation error. Furthermore, by integrating IIDOB into the framework of control barrier functions, a filter-based safe control design method for control-affine systems with disturbances is established where the filter is used to generate an alternative disturbance estimation signal with a known derivative. Sufficient conditions are established to guarantee the safety of the disturbed systems. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method