Discrete‐time sector based hands‐off control for nonlinear system

This article presents a hands‐off control design for discrete‐time nonlinear system with a special type of nonlinear sector termed as “discrete‐time sector.” The design method to define the boundary of a discrete‐time sector is done with control‐Lyapunov function. The generalization of nonlinear system is viewed in the perspective of a comparison function. By means of a proposed sector, a switching control is designed such that no control action is experienced inside the sector thus, saving unnecessary control efforts. However, to study the robustness for discrete‐time system, a hands‐off control is modified to ensure the monotonic decrease in the energy of the system. Finally, the proposed approach is verified with the simulation results.     

Delay compensated control of the Stefan problem and robustness to delay mismatch

This paper presents a control design for the one‐phase Stefan problem under actuator delay via a backstepping method. The Stefan problem represents a liquid‐solid phase change phenomenon which describes the time evolution of a material's temperature profile and the interface position. The actuator delay is modeled by a first‐order hyperbolic partial differential equation (PDE), resulting in a cascaded transport‐diffusion PDE system defined on a time‐varying spatial domain described by an ordinary differential equation (ODE). Two nonlinear backstepping transformations are utilized for the control design. The setpoint restriction is given to guarantee a physical constraint on the proposed controller for the melting process. This constraint ensures the exponential convergence of the moving interface to a setpoint and the exponential stability of the temperature equilibrium profile and the delayed controller in the norm. Furthermore, robustness analysis with respect to the delay mismatch between the plant and the controller is studied, which provides analogous results to the exact compensation by restricting the control gain.     

Asynchronous control for two‐dimensional hidden Markovian jump systems with partly known mode observation conditional probabilities

This study focuses on the asynchronous control problem for two‐dimensional discrete‐time hidden Markovian jump systems where the mode observation conditional probability matrix is partly known. Considering the original system modes are invisible, the observed modes emitted from an observer serve as an alternative for stability analysis and controller design where a mode observation conditional probability matrix is constructed to characterize the emission between system modes and observed modes. Specially, only partly known information of the mode observation conditional probability matrix is accessible. With the introduction of the free‐connection weighting matrices, the asymptotic mean square stability criterion is firstly derived based on Lyapunov method. This introduction provides a further degree of relaxation and less conservatism is therefore achieved. Secondly, we present synthesis conditions for asynchronous state feedback controller design given in terms of a set of interconnected linear matrix inequalities. Moreover, cluster concept based on the partitions of observed modes is adopted which helps to decrease the number of controllers and simplify the design complexity. A numerical example, regarding the cases with and without clustering of the observed modes, is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Packet loss detection in networked control systems

One of the main issues related to the reliable operation of network control systems concerns the design of mechanisms able to detect anomalies in the functioning of the communication network through which the control loops are closed. In this article, we address the problem of detecting the occurrence of packet losses and design a mechanism that can detect the occurrence of packet losses directly from process sensor data. Specifically, we propose a moving‐horizon estimation scheme that permits to detect if the packet‐loss rate exceeds prescribed thresholds, which are representative of stability and performance of the control system. We discuss theoretical properties of the proposed solution along with an approximation scheme with reduced computational burden. A numerical example is discussed to substantiate the analysis.     

H∞ control for uncertain one‐sided Lipschitz nonlinear systems in finite frequency domain

The current article discusses the H_∞ disturbance attenuation control design problem for one‐sided Lipschitz systems in finite frequency domain. Models containing norm‐bounded parameter uncertainties, disturbances, and input nonlinearities are considered. By contrast to existing full frequency methods, the H_∞ controller is computed depending on the frequency ranges of disturbances. The finite frequency disturbance attenuation index is initially defined. Thanks to Finsler's lemma, sufficient and less conservative analysis conditions are also derived for the closed‐loop system. Then, synthesis conditions in the low, middle, and high frequency ranges as well as the whole frequency range, are formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities. At last, to prove the effectiveness and the superiority of the proposed approach, a physical example is used and a comparative study is done.     

Passive target detection and tracking from electromagnetic field measurements

This paper presents a novel approach to the localization of moving targets in a complex environment based on the measurement of the perturbations induced by the target presence on an independently‐generated time‐varying electromagnetic field. Field perturbations are measured via a set of sensors deployed over the domain of interest and used to detect and track a possible target by resorting to a particle Bernoulli filter (PBF). To comply with real‐time operation, the PBF works along with an artificial neural network (ANN) model of the environment trained offline via finite elements (FEs). The performance of the proposed algorithm is assessed via simulation experiments.     

Smart control of the assembly process with a fuzzy control system in the context of Industry 4.0

Assembly line balancing is important for the efficiency of the assembly process, however, a wide range of disruptions can break the current workload balance. Some researchers explored the task assignment plan for the assembly line balancing problem with the assumption that the assembly process is smooth with no disruption. Other researchers considered the impacts of disruptions, but they only explored the task re-assignment solutions for the assembly line re-balancing problem with the assumption that the re-balancing decision has been made already. There is limited literature exploring on-line adjustment solutions (layout adjustment and production rate adjustment) for an assembly line in a dynamic environment. This is because real-time monitoring of an assembly process was impossible in the past, and it is difficult to incorporate uncertainty factors into the balancing process because of the randomness and non-linearity of these factors. However, Industry 4.0 breaks the information barriers between different parts of an assembly line, since smart, connected products, which are enabled by advanced information and communication technology, can intelligently interact and communicate with each other and collect, process and produce information. Smart control of an assembly line becomes possible with the large amounts of real-time production data in the era of Industry 4.0, but there is little literature considering this new context. In this study, a fuzzy control system is developed to analyze the real-time information of an assembly line, with two types of fuzzy controllers in the fuzzy system. Type 1 fuzzy controller is used to determine whether the assembly line should be re-balanced to satisfy the demand, and type 2 fuzzy controller is used to adjust the production rate of each workstation in time to eliminate blockage and starvation, and increase the utilization of machines. Compared with three assembly lines without the proposed fuzzy control system, the assembly line with the fuzzy control system performs better, in terms of blockage ratio, starvation ratio and buffer level. Additionally, with the improvement of information transparency, the performance of an assembly line will be better. The research findings shed light on the smart control of the assembly process, and provide insights into the impacts of Industry 4.0 on assembly line balancing.     

Zone model predictive control for pressure management of water distribution network

In the water distribution network (WDN), although the water demand of the node is changing constantly, the water quantity and water pressure of the node need to be met at each moment. To realize energy saving and consumption reduction, it is proposed to control the nodal water head of WDN in an appropriate narrow range. The frequent large fluctuation of the water demand, which may lead the water pressure exceed the expected range, increases the difficulty of the zone control. To realize optimized WND control, a novel zone predictive control is proposed, where two switching cases are considered. The switching condition is whether there are feasible solutions to keep the pressure within the expected region over the prediction horizon. When the condition is satisfied, the controller minimizes the variation of inputs with constraints of pressure range for ensuring the tank level staying within the expected zone and obtaining optimal economic cost. When the current pressure is out of the expected region or the condition is not satisfied due to the large variation of water demand, a reference trajectory of outputs is introduced, which is combined with the inputs as an optimization variable, and the constraints of expected zone are moved from the output to the introduced reference trajectory. Through minimizing the distance between reference trajectory and output, the controller will keep the tank level from deviating too far from the expected zone and will drive the tank level rapidly into the expected zone once the tank level exceeds the expected range. An application of the proposed zone MPC to WDN in Shinan District of Shanghai is given to illustrate its effectiveness.     

矿用直线振动筛结构故障分析

针对煤矿选煤厂直线振动筛工作过程中出现的结构故障问题,采用有限元仿真与现场测试结合的方法对振动筛出现故障的原因进行了分析研究。介绍了振动筛的主要结构及常见故障,并以某矿选煤厂发生大梁断裂的振动筛为例,对该振动筛进行三维建模和有限元模态分析,分析结果表明:随着模态阶次的增加,振型的变化逐渐由移动转为结构本身的扭曲变形。在该振动筛空载工作状态下,选用本质安全型便携式测振记录仪进行振动测试并处理测试信号,得到该振动筛的工作频率。结合模态分析结果和实际测试结果,判断出空载时频繁运行振动筛是造成其大梁断裂的主要原因。根据故障原因给出维护建议:应当尽量避免振动筛在空载或物料较少的状态下长时间运行;在振动筛投入使用前,应预先了解振动筛的工作状态及可能存在的薄弱环节,尽可能避免结构故障,保证振动筛可靠运行。     

一种压电半导体纳米线的热电耦合性能研究

采用有限元分析方法,研究了一种n型压电半导体纳米线(氧化锌)的电热耦合性能,分析了外部温度对氧化锌纳米线内部机械场、电场及电流场分布的影响,并讨论了本构方程线性化对电学参数的影响。研究结果表明,温度对氧化锌纳米线的电场、载流子浓度和电流密度影响很大,采用线性本构和非线性本构求得的电场、电子浓度和电流密度最大相差分别为24%,32%和68%,基于非线性本构分析压电半导体的电学性能会引起很大误差。该研究结果可为压电半导体器件利用温度调控电场、电流提供理论依据。