Robust adaptive control for a class of semi‐strict feedback systems with state and input constraints

This paper proposes a dynamic surface control (DSC)–based robust adaptive control scheme for a class of semi‐strict feedback systems with full‐state and input constraints. In the control scheme, a constraint transformation method is employed to prevent the transgression of the full‐state constraints. Specifically, the state constraints are firstly represented as the surface error constraints, then, an error transformation is introduced to convert the constrained surface errors into new equivalent variables without constraints. By ensuring the boundedness of the transformed variables, the violation of the state constraints can be prevented. Moreover, in order to obtain magnitude limited virtual control signal for the recursive design, the saturations are incorporated into the control law. The auxiliary design systems are constructed to analyze the effects of the introduced saturations and the input constraints. Rigorous theoretical analysis demonstrates that the proposed control law can guarantee all the closed‐loop signals are uniformly ultimately bounded, the tracking error converges to a small neighborhood of origin, and the full‐state constraints are not violated. Compared with the existing results, the key advantages of the proposed control scheme include: (i) the utilization of the constraint transformation can handle both time‐varying symmetric and asymmetric state constraints and static ones in a unified framework; (ii) the incorporation of the saturations permits the removal of a feasibility analysis step and avoids solving the constrained optimization problem; and (iii) the “explosion of complexity” in traditional backstepping design is avoided by using the DSC technique. Simulations are finally given to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Consensus control of output‐constrained multiagent systems with unknown control directions under a directed graph

This paper presents a novel distributed adaptive control algorithm for uncertain higher‐order nonlinear multiagent systems subject to output constraints and unknown control directions. Regarding the latter, a generic class of cases is considered, allowing completely unknown and even nonidentical control directions. Furthermore, the communication topology is only required to contain a fixed directed spanning tree. To guarantee the output constraints and address the asymmetric directed communication topology, a new reference output using the transformation strategy is introduced for each agent, benefiting from which the consensus problem of the multiagent system is recast as local tracking control problems of single agents. Then, the distributed control algorithm is recursively established based on the backstepping technique and the Nussbaum‐type function. By leveraging the unique properties of the Laplacian matrix on directed graphs and matrix theory, it is shown that, under the proposed distributed algorithm, uniform boundedness of all closed‐loop signals can be ensured, and asymptotic consensus is achieved without violation of the output constraints. Finally, simulation studies on the angle control of single‐link robots are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

Adaptive consensus control for stochastic nonlinear multiagent systems with full state constraints

In this paper, the consensus tracking problem is investigated for stochastic nonlinear multiagent systems with full state constraints and time delays. The barrier Lyapunov functions proposed for single‐agent constrained systems are constructively extended to solve the consensus problem for multiagent systems with the full state constraints. Some Lyapunov‐Krasovskii functionals are introduced to compensate for state time delays, which are inherent in the complicated nonlinear systems. Based on the variable separation technique, the difficulty arising from the nonstrict‐feedback structure is overcome. Under a directed communication topology, the distributed neuroadaptive control protocols are proposed to guarantee that all the follower agents follow the trajectory of the leader agent and the full state constraints are not violated. The effectiveness of the proposed distributed adaptive control approach is verified via simulation examples.     

Asymptotic tracking control for constrained nonstrict‐feedback MIMO nonlinear systems via parameter compensations

This paper studies the problem of adaptive fuzzy asymptotic tracking control for multiple input multiple output nonlinear systems in nonstrict‐feedback form. Full state constraints, input quantization, and unknown control direction are simultaneously considered in the systems. By using the fuzzy logic systems, the unknown nonlinear functions are identified. A modified partition of variables is introduced to handle the difficulty caused by nonstrict‐feedback structure. In each step of the backstepping design, the symmetric barrier Lyapunov functions are designed to avoid the breach of the state constraints, and the issues of overparametrization and unknown control direction are settled via introducing two compensation functions and the property of Nussbaum function, respectively. Furthermore, an adaptive fuzzy asymptotic tracking control strategy is raised. Based on Lyapunov stability analysis, the developed control strategy can effectually ensure that all the system variables are bounded, and the tracking errors asymptotically converge to zero. Eventually, simulation results are supplied to verify the feasibility of the proposed scheme.     

Decentralized filtering adaptive constrained tracking control for interconnected nonlinear systems

This paper presents a novel decentralized filtering adaptive constrained tracking control framework for uncertain interconnected nonlinear systems. Each subsystem has its own decentralized controller based on the established decentralized state predictor. For each subsystem, a piecewise constant adaptive law will generate total uncertainty estimates by solving the error dynamics between the host system and decentralized state predictor with the neglection of unknowns, whereas a decentralized filtering control law is designed to compensate both local and mismatched uncertainties from other subsystems, as well as achieve the local objective tracking of the host system. The achievement of global objective depends on the achievement of local objective for each subsystem. In the control scheme, the nonlinear uncertainties are compensated for within the bandwidth of low‐pass filters, while the trade‐off between tracking and constraints violation avoidance is formulated as a numerical constrained optimization problem which is solved periodically. Priority is given to constraints violation avoidance at the cost of deteriorated tracking performance. The uniform performance bounds are derived for the system states and control inputs as compared to the corresponding signals of a bounded closed‐loop reference system, which assumes partial cancelation of uncertainties within the bandwidth of the control signal. Compared with model predictive control (MPC) and unconstrained controller, the proposed control architecture is capable of solving the tracking control problems for interconnected nonlinear systems subject to constraints and uncertainties.     

Decentralized intelligent tracking control for uncertain high‐order stochastic nonlinear strong interconnected systems in drift and diffusion terms

This paper focuses mainly on decentralized intelligent tracking control for a class of high‐order stochastic nonlinear systems with unknown strong interconnected nonlinearity in the drift and diffusion terms. For the control of uncertain high‐order nonlinear systems, the approximation capability of RBF neural networks is utilized to deal with the difficulties caused by completely unknown system dynamics and stochastic disturbances, and only one adaptive parameter is constructed to overcome the overparameterization problem. Then, to address the problem from high‐order strong interconnected nonlinearities in the drift and diffusion terms with full states of the overall system, by using the monotonically increasing property of the bounding functions, the variable separation technique is achieved. Lastly, based on the Lyapunov stability theory, a decentralized adaptive neural control method is proposed to reduce the number of online adaptive learning parameters. It is shown that, for bounded initial conditions, the designed controller can ensure the semiglobally uniformly ultimate boundedness of the solution of the closed‐loop system and make the tracking errors eventually converge to a small neighborhood around the origin. Two simulation examples including a practical example are used to further illustrate the effectiveness of the design method.     

Prescribed performance adaptive neural output feedback dynamic surface control for a class of strict‐feedback uncertain nonlinear systems with full state constraints and unmodeled dynamics

This paper studies the output feedback tracking control problem for a class of strict‐feedback uncertain nonlinear systems with full state constraints and unmodeled dynamics using a prescribed performance adaptive neural dynamic surface control design approach. A nonlinear mapping technique is employed to address the state constraints. Radial basis function neural networks are utilized to approximate the unknown nonlinear functions. The unmodeled dynamics is addressed by introducing an available dynamic signal. Subsequently, we construct the controller and parameter adaptive laws using a backstepping technique. Based on Lyapunov stability theory, it is shown that all signals in the closed‐loop system are semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded and that the tracking error always remains within the prescribed performance bound. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.     

Adaptive Decentralized NN Control of Nonlinear Interconnected Time‐Delay Systems with Input Saturation

In this paper, a novel decentralized adaptive neural control scheme is proposed for a class of interconnected large‐scale uncertain nonlinear time‐delay systems with input saturation. Radial basis function (RBF) neural networks (NNs) are used to tackle unknown nonlinear functions. Then, the decentralized adaptive NN tracking controller is constructed by combining Lyapunov–Krasovskii functions and the dynamic surface control (DSC) technique, along with the minimal‐learning‐parameters (MLP) algorithm. The stability analysis subject to the effect of input saturation constraints are conducted with the help of an auxiliary design system based on the Lyapunov–Krasovskii method. The proposed controller guarantees uniform ultimate boundedness (UUB) of all of the signals in the closed‐loop large‐scale system, while the tracking errors converge to a small neighborhood around the origin. An advantage of the proposed control scheme lies in the number of adaptive parameters of the whole system being reduced to one and in the solution of the three problems of “computational explosion,” “dimension curse,” and “controller singularity”. Finally, simulation results along with comparisons are presented to demonstrate the advantages, effectiveness, and performance of the proposed scheme.     

Adaptive fault tolerant control for a class of input and state constrained MIMO nonlinear systems

In this work, we present a novel adaptive fault tolerant control (FTC) scheme for a class of control input and system state constrained multi‐input multi‐output (MIMO) nonlinear systems with both multiplicative and additive actuator faults. The input constraints can be asymmetric, and the state constraints can be time‐varying. A novel tan‐type time‐varying Barrier Lyapunov Function (BLF) is proposed to deal with the state constraints, and an auxiliary system is designed to analyze the effect of the input constraints. We show that under the proposed adaptive FTC scheme, exponential convergence of the output tracking error into a small neighbourhood of zero is guaranteed, while the constraints on the system state will not be violated during operation. Estimation errors for actuator faults are bounded in the closed loop. An illustrative example on a two degree‐of‐freedom robotic manipulator is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed FTC scheme. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust adaptive DSC of directly input‐coupled nonlinear systems with input unmodeled dynamics and time‐varying output constraints

In this paper, an adaptive robust dynamic surface control is proposed for a class of uncertain nonlinear interconnected systems with time‐varying output constraints and dynamic input and output coupling. The directly coupled inputs and control inputs are both of nonlinear input unmodeled dynamics. To counteract the instable impact of the nonlinear input unmodeled dynamics, normalization signals are designed on the basis of the convergence rates of their Lyapunov functions. With new state variables and control variables being defined, the real control inputs are obtained through solving the equations of intermediate control laws. The time‐varying constraints on output signals are implemented by introducing asymmetric barrier Lyapunov functions. In addition, dynamic signals and decentralized K‐filters are used to deal with the state unmodeled dynamics and to estimate the unmeasurable states, respectively. By the theoretical analysis, the signals in the closed‐loop system are proved to be semi‐globally uniformly ultimately bounded, and the output constraints are guaranteed simultaneously. A numerical example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive Neural Dynamic Surface Control for Stochastic Nonlinear Time‐Delay Systems with Input and Output Constraints

This paper presents an adaptive neural tracking control approach for uncertain stochastic nonlinear time‐delay systems with input and output constraints. Firstly, the dynamic surface control (DSC) technique is incorporated into adaptive neural control framework to overcome the problem of ‘explosion of complexity’ in the control design. By employing a continuous differentiable asymmetric saturation model, the input constraint problem is solved. Secondly, the appropriate Lyapunov‐Krasovskii functional and the property of hyperbolic tangent functions are used to deal with the unknown time‐delay terms, RBF neural network is utilized to identify the unknown systems functions, and barrier Lyapunov functions (BLFs) are designed to avoid the violation of the output constraint. Finally, based on adaptive backstepping technique, an adaptive neural control method is proposed, and it decreases the number of learning parameters. Using Lyapunov stability theory, it is proved that the designed controller can ensure that all the signals in the closed‐loop system are 4‐Moment (or 2 Moment) semi‐globally uniformly ultimately bounded (SGUUB) and the tracking error converges to a small neighborhood of the origin. Two simulation examples are provided to further illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Adaptive finite‐time neural backstepping control for multi‐input and multi‐output state‐constrained nonlinear systems using tangent‐type nonlinear mapping

This article focuses on the problem of adaptive finite‐time neural backstepping control for multi‐input and multi‐output nonlinear systems with time‐varying full‐state constraints and uncertainties. A tan‐type nonlinear mapping function is first proposed to convert the strict‐feedback system into a new pure‐feedback one without constraints. Neural networks are utilized to cope with unknown functions. To improve learning performance, a composite adaptive law is designed using tracking error and approximate error. A finite‐time convergent differentiator is adopted to avoid the problem of “explosion of complexity.” By theoretical analysis, all the signals of system are proved to be bounded, the outputs can track the desired signals in a finite time, and full‐state constraints are not transgressed. Finally, comparative simulations are offered to confirm the validity of the proposed control scheme.     

Adaptive Non‐Backstepping Fuzzy Control for a Class of Uncertain Nonlinear Systems with Unknown Dead‐Zone Input

Based on the approximation property of fuzzy logic systems, we propose a novel non‐backstepping adaptive tracking control algorithm for a class of single input single output (SISO) strict‐feedback nonlinear systems with unknown dead‐zone input. In this algorithm, we introduce some novel state variables and coordinate transforms to convert the strict‐feedback form into a normal one, and it is not necessary to consider the traditional approximation‐based the backstepping scheme. Due to new states variables being unavailable, the tracking control is changed from a state‐feedback one to an output‐feedback one. So, observers need to be designed to estimate the indirect nonmeasurable states. According to Lyapunov stability analysis method, the developed controller can guarantee that all of the signals in the closed‐loop system will be ultimately uniformly bounded (UUB), and the output can track the reference signal very well. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Adaptive Control Scheme for Large‐Scale Interconnected Systems Described by Hammerstein Models

This paper proposes an adaptive algorithm for the online control of discrete‐time large‐scale nonlinear systems, which reduces the noise effects acting on the system output (regulation problem) and allows the system output to keep track of a time‐varying trajectory (tracking problem). We consider a large‐scale nonlinear system that can be decomposed into single‐input single‐output (SISO) interconnected nonlinear subsystems with known structure variables (orders, delays) and unknown time‐varying parameters. Each interconnected subsystem is described by block‐oriented models, specifically a discrete‐time Hammerstein model. Parameter adaptation is performed using a recursive parametric estimation algorithm based on the adjustable model method and the least squares techniques. Simulation results of an interconnected petroleum process are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed control scheme.     

Robust Adaptive Fuzzy Control of Nonlinear Systems with Unknown and Time‐Varying Saturation

In this paper, a robust adaptive fuzzy control approach is proposed for a class of nonlinear systems in strict‐feedback form with the unknown time‐varying saturation input. To deal with the time‐varying saturation problem, a novel controller separation approach is proposed in the literature to separate the desired control signal from the practical constrained control input. Furthermore, an optimized adaptation method is applied to the dynamic surface control design to reduce the number of adaptive parameters. By utilizing the Lyapunov synthesis, the fuzzy logic system technique and the Nussbaum function technique, an adaptive fuzzy control algorithm is constructed to guarantee that all the signals in the closed‐loop control system remain semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded, and the tracking error is driven to an adjustable neighborhood of the origin. Finally, some numerical examples are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme in the literature.     

Adaptive reliable guaranteed performance control of uncertain nonlinear systems by using exponent‐dependent barrier Lyapunov function

This paper investigates the issue of adaptive reliable tracking control for a class of uncertain nonlinear parametric strict‐feedback systems under actuator faults. To guarantee better transient performance of adaptive systems especially when actuator faults occur, a novel prescribed performance bounds (PPBs) method based on exponent‐dependent barrier Lyapunov function is developed. Differing from the existing results where the control schemes have introduced the strictly monotone smooth function to achieve constrained error transformation, the proposed PPBs scheme is designed by using the time‐varying barriers to constrain the error trajectories, which accurately characterizes the convergence rates and convergence bounds of errors. Finally, under the framework of backstepping technique and Lyapunov stability theorem, an adaptive reliable controller is designed to ensure that all the closed‐loop signals are semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded with the tracking errors converging to the specified PPBs. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Adaptive finite‐time control for nonlinear teleoperation systems with asymmetric time‐varying delays

This paper addresses the adaptive finite‐time control problem of nonlinear teleoperation system in the presence of asymmetric time‐varying delays. To achieve the finite‐time position tracking, a novel adaptive finite‐time coordination algorithm based on subsystem decomposition is developed. By introducing a switching‐technique‐based error filtering into our design framework, the complete closed‐loop master (slave) teleoperation system is modeled as a special class of switched system, which is composed of two subsystems. To analyze such system, a finite‐time state‐independent input‐to‐output stability criterion is first developed for some normal switched nonlinear delayed systems. Then based on the classical Lyapunov–Krasovskii method, the stability of complete closed‐loop systems is obtained. It is shown that the proposed scheme can make the position errors converge into a deterministic domain in finite time when the robots continuously contact with human operator and/or the environment in the presence of asymmetric time‐varying delays. Finally, the simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Immersion and Invariance Based Robust Adaptive Control of High‐Speed Train with Guaranteed Prescribed Performance Bounds

This paper proposes a novel robust adaptive algorithm for train tracking control with guaranteed prescribed transient and steady‐state performance. As speed increases, the inherent time‐varying uncertainties and unmodeled dynamics in the longitudinal dynamics of a high‐speed train seriously impacts the tracking performance of automatic train operation. To improve train operation performance, an estimator based on immersion and invariance technology is developed to recover the unknown and time‐varying plant parameters, and it renders the estimation error converging to a bounded residual set exponentially while providing more freedom for the controller. After certain error transformation, the prescribed tracking performance is introduced into the controller design. Then, an input‐to‐stable stable controller is developed through the backstepping technique, and it is proven that stabilization of the transformed system is sufficient to guarantee the prescribed performance. Rigorous theoretical analysis for the presented algorithm is provided, and a series of simulation studies also are given to verify the effectiveness of it.     

Adaptive optimal dynamic surface control of strict‐feedback nonlinear systems with output constraints

In this paper, an adaptive optimal control strategy is proposed for a class of strict‐feedback nonlinear systems with output constraints by using dynamic surface control. The controller design procedure is divided into two parts. One is the design of feedforward controller and the other is the design of optimal controller. To guarantee the satisfaction of output constraints in feedforward controller, nonlinear mapping is utilized to transform the constrained system into an unconstrained system. Neural‐network based adaptive dynamic programming algorithm is employed to approximate the optimal cost function and the optimal control law. By theoretical analysis, all the signals in the closed‐loop system are proved to be semi‐globally uniformly ultimately bounded and the output constraints are not violated. A numerical example illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.