Global robust output regulation for a class of multivariable systems

In this paper, we study the global robust output regulation problem for a class of multivariable nonlinear systems. The problem is first converted into a stabilization problem of an augmented system composed of the original plant and an internal model. The augmented system is a multi‐input system containing both dynamic uncertainty and time‐varying static uncertainty. By decomposing the multi‐input control problem into several single‐input control problems, we will solve the problem by solving several single‐input control problems via a recursive approach utilizing the changing supply function technique. The theoretical result is applied to the speed tracking control and load torque disturbance rejection problem of a surface‐mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New results on robust output regulation of nonlinear systems with a nonlinear exosystem

The global robust output regulation problem for nonlinear plants subject to nonlinear exosystems has been a challenging problem and has not been well addressed. The main difficulty lies in finding a suitable internal model. The existing internal model for handling the nonlinear exosystem is not zero input globally asymptotically stable, and can only guarantee a local solution for the output regulation problem. In this paper, we first propose a new class of internal models, which is guaranteed to exist under the generalized immersion condition. An advantage of this internal model is that it is zero input globally asymptotically stable. This fact will greatly facilitate the global stabilization of the augmented system associated with the given plant and the internal model. Then we will further utilize this class of internal models to solve the global robust output regulation problem for output feedback systems with a nonlinear exosystem. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Speed tracking control of surface‐mounted permanent‐magnet synchronous motor with unknown exosystem

The surface‐mounted permanent‐magnet synchronous motor is a two‐input, two‐output nonlinear system. The multi‐input, multi‐output nature of the system has posed some specific challenges to various control methods. Recently, the robust output regulation problem of the system subject to a known neutrally stable exosystem was studied. The problem came down to a global robust stabilization problem of an augmented system composed of the original plant and an internal model. In this paper, we will further study the robust output regulation problem of the system subject to an unknown neutrally stable exosystem. Like in the case where the exosystem is known, the current problem can be solved by globally stabilizing an augmented system. But unlike in the case where the exosystem is known, the augmented system takes a much more complicated form because of uncertainty in the exosystem than the case where the exosystem is known. In particular, the dynamic uncertainty in the current augmented system contains linearly parameterized uncertainty, and hence is not input‐to‐state stable. By utilizing some dynamic coordinate transformation technique, and combining some robust control and adaptive control techniques, we will solve the problem via a recursive approach. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global output regulation for output feedback systems with an uncertain exosystem and its application

This paper presents the solvability conditions for the global robust output regulation problem for a class of output feedback systems with an uncertain exosystem by using output feedback control. An adaptive control technique is used to handle the unknown parameter vector in the exosystem. It is shown that this unknown parameter vector can be exactly estimated asymptotically if a controller containing a minimal internal model is employed. The effectiveness of our approach has been illustrated by an asymptotic tracking problem of a generalized fourth‐order Lorenz system. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Output regulation by postprocessing internal models for a class of multivariable nonlinear systems

In this paper we propose a new design paradigm, which employs a postprocessing internal model unit, to approach the problem of output regulation for a class of multivariable minimum‐phase nonlinear systems possessing a partial normal form. Contrary to previous approaches, the proposed regulator handles control inputs of dimension larger than the number of regulated variables, provided that a controllability assumption holds, and can employ additional measurements that need not to vanish at the ideal error‐zeroing steady state, but that can be useful for stabilization purposes or to fulfill the minimum‐phase requirement. Conditions for practical and asymptotic output regulation are given, underlying how in postprocessing schemes the design of internal models is necessarily intertwined with that of the stabilizer.     

Nonlinear output regulation for invertible nonlinear MIMO systems

In this paper, we address the problem of output regulation for a broad class of multi‐input multi‐output (MIMO) nonlinear systems. Specifically, we consider input–affine systems, which are invertible and input–output linearizable. This class includes, as a trivial special case, the class of MIMO systems which possess a well‐defined vector relative degree. It is shown that if a system in this class is strongly minimum phase, in a sense specified in the paper, the problem of output regulation can be solved via partial‐state feedback or via (dynamic) output feedback. The result substantially broadens the class of nonlinear MIMO systems for which the problem in question is known to be possible. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Semi-global robust output regulation of minimum-phase nonlinear systems based on high-gain nonlinear internal model

We consider the assumption of existence of the general nonlinear internal model that is introduced in the design of robust output regulators for a class of minimum-phase nonlinear systems with rth degree (r ≥ 2). The robust output regulation problem can be converted into a robust stabilisation problem of an augmented system consisting of the given plant and a high-gain nonlinear internal model, perfectly reproducing the bounded including not only periodic but also nonperiodic exogenous signal from a nonlinear system, which satisfies some general immersion assumption. The state feedback controller is designed to guarantee the asymptotic convergence of system errors to zero manifold. Furthermore, the proposed scheme makes use of output feedback dynamic controller that only processes information from the regulated output error by using high-gain observer to robustly estimate the derivatives of the regulated output error. The stabilisation analysis of the resulting closed-loop systems leads to regional as well as semi-global robust output regulation achieved for some appointed initial condition in the state space, for all possible values of the uncertain parameter vector and the exogenous signal, ranging over an arbitrary compact set.     

Semi-global robust output regulation for a class of singular nonlinear systems via nonlinear internal model

Most of existing results on robust output regulation problem of singular nonlinear systems are limited to local solutions. In this paper, the semi-global robust output regulation problem for a class of singular nonlinear systems is investigated by using a nonlinear internal model. Attaching a nonlinear internal model to the singular nonlinear system yields an augmented singular nonlinear system whose semi-global robust stabilisation solution leads to the solution of the semi-global robust output regulation problem of the original singular nonlinear system. The solvability conditions of the semi-global output regulation problem are established by addressing the solvability of the robust stabilisation problem of augmented singular nonlinear system. Finally, a numerical simulation example is used to illustrate the design of the semi-global regulator for the singular nonlinear systems.     

A class of nonlinear internal models for global robust output regulation problem

The global robust output regulation problem of nonlinear systems in output feedback form has been studied via a linear internal model. In this paper, we study the same problem using a class of nonlinear internal models. An advantage of nonlinear internal models is that it exists even when the system contains nonpolynomial nonlinearity and the exosystem is nonlinear. Thus, the result of this paper applies to a larger class of nonlinear systems and a larger class of exosystems. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tracking of piezoelectric actuators with hysteresis: A nonlinear robust output regulation approach

Hysteretic characteristics commonly exist in piezoelectric actuators (PEAs) and degrade the positioning accuracy particularly in the case of low‐frequency trajectory tracking. A PEA with hysteretic characteristics is usually difficult to precisely control because the unmeasurable hysteretic force is typically generated by a complicated nonlinear dynamic model. This task can be theoretically formulated as a robust output regulation problem with a specific nonlinear and non‐autonomous exosystem. In this paper, the theoretical problem is first solved within a novel internal model architecture. With the proposed controller, the PEA is able to asymptotically track a desired reference trajectory with the robustness to plant uncertainties. The effectiveness of the design is verified by extensive experiments. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global robust practical output regulation for nonlinear systems in output feedback form by output‐based event‐triggered control

In this paper, we study the event‐triggered global robust practical output regulation problem for a class of nonlinear systems in output feedback form with any relative degree. Our approach consists of the following three steps. First, we design an internal model and an observer to form the so‐called extended augmented system. Second, we convert the original problem into the event‐triggered global robust practical stabilization problem of the extended augmented system. Third, we design an output‐based event‐triggered control law and a Zeno‐free output‐based event‐triggered mechanism to solve the stabilization problem, which, in turn, leads to the solvability of the original problem. Finally, we apply our result to the controlled hyperchaotic Lorenz systems.     

Global disturbance rejection for nonlinear lower triangular systems with iISS inverse dynamics and uncertain exosystem

This paper concerns about the global disturbance rejection problem for uncertain nonlinear lower triangular systems with integral input‐to‐state stable (iISS) inverse dynamics and an uncertain exosystem. The main challenges addressed in this paper include uncertain exosystem, unknown control direction, iISS inverse dynamics, and complex structure of lower triangular systems. Because of the presence of both uncertain exosystem and unknown control direction, simply combining the existing techniques for each of these challenges cannot solve the proposed problem. In fact, to handle the current case, appropriate new update laws for the estimators of the uncertain parameters are required, such that the estimators can be successfully integrated with the internal model principle. Furthermore, the changing supply function technique for iISS systems is utilized to deal with the iISS inverse dynamics. With the proposed controller, the closed‐loop system is globally asymptotically stable, and the disturbance is globally rejected. Two simulation examples are finally presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme and the practical relevance of our work. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Speed tracking control of PM synchronous motor by internal model design

In this article, we consider a speed tracking and load torque disturbance rejection problem of PM synchronous motor by internal model design. The problem is first formulated as a global robust output regulation problem of a special class of multivariable systems. Then the output regulation problem is further converted into a global stabilisation problem of an augmented system composed of the original plant and an internal model. As the augmented system does not take any known special form, we have developed a specific tool to deal with the stabilisation problem. In particular, a generalised changing supply function technique applicable to non-input-to-state stable (ISS) systems is developed. This technique, in conjunction with a particular nonlinear internal model, leads to an effective solution to the problem.     

Robust output regulation of minimum phase nonlinear systems using conditional servocompensators

We consider the design of a robust continuous sliding mode controller for the output regulation of a class of minimum‐phase nonlinear systems. Previous work has shown how to do this by incorporating a linear servocompensator in the sliding mode design, but the transient performance is degraded when compared to ideal sliding mode control. Extending previous ideas from the design of ‘conditional integrators’ for the case of asymptotically constant references and disturbances, we design the servocompensator as a conditional one that provides servocompensation only inside the boundary layer; achieving asymptotic output regulation, but with improved transient performance. We give both regional as well as semi‐global results for error convergence, and show that the controller can be tuned to recover the performance of an ideal sliding mode control. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nussbaum function–based universal cooperative output regulation design for uncertain nonlinear multiagent systems

This paper presents a Nussbaum function–based universal cooperative output regulation design for a class of nonlinear multiagent systems with both an unknown exosystem and nonidentical unknown control directions. The major challenges include the nonidentical unknown control directions in a directed communication graph and the concurrence of the unknown parameters in both the plant and the exosystem. To handle the nonidentical unknown control directions, we propose a dynamic compensator–based distributed controller such that the Nussbaum gain technique can be successfully implemented under directed communication graphs. Moreover, to deal with the unknown exosystem, we integrate the distributed controller with a novel internal model candidate. The resulting distributed controller is a universal regulator in the sense that it does not require the unknown parameters to be in known compact sets. Furthermore, the proposed controller is more flexible compared with those in the existing works as any existing Nussbaum gains can be adopted in the controller design and the adopted Nussbaum gains can be nonidentical for each agent.     

Output‐feedback robust adaptive backstepping control for a class of multivariable nonlinear systems with guaranteed tracking performance

This paper is devoted to output‐feedback adaptive control for a class of multivariable nonlinear systems with both unknown parameters and unknown nonlinear functions. Under the Hurwitz condition for the high‐frequency gain matrix, a robust adaptive backstepping control scheme is proposed, which is able to guarantee the tracking performance and needs only one parameter to be updated online regardless of the system order and input–output dimension. To cope with the unknown nonlinear functions and improve the tracking performance, a kind of high‐gain K‐filters is introduced. It is proved that all signals of the closed‐loop system are globally uniformly bounded. Simulation results on coupled inverted double pendulums are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust output regulation for discrete‐time nonlinear systems

In this paper, we will establish a framework that can convert the robust output regulation problem for discrete‐time nonlinear systems into a robust stabilization problem for an appropriately augmented system consisting of the given plant and a specific dynamic system called internal model. We then apply this framework to solve the local robust output regulation problem for a general class of discrete‐time nonlinear systems. The results of this paper gives a discrete‐time counterpart of the recent results on the continuous‐time robust output regulation problem. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于障碍Lyapunov函数的未知控制方向非线性系统的约束鲁棒输出调节

本文研究一类不确定非线性系统的约束鲁棒输出调节问题. 在具有未知控制输入方向的情况下, 要求被控线性系统的受控输出在趋近于零的同时, 被限制在给定的范围内. 文章结合障碍Lyapunov函数和Nussbaum增益技术, 进行反馈控制器的设计. 通过MATLAB仿真验证了控制算法的合理性. 同时, 与基于二次型Lyapunov函数设计的仿真结果进行对比, 表明了控制算法的有效性     

Cooperative robust output regulation of a class of heterogeneous linear uncertain multi‐agent systems

The cooperative output regulation of a linear multi‐agent system can be viewed as a generalization of the leader‐following consensus problem and was studied recently for the case where the system uncertain parameters vary in a sufficiently small neighborhood of their nominal value. This case was handled by the internal model design which converts the problem into a simultaneous eigenvalue placement problem of an augmented multi‐agent system. In this paper, we further consider the cooperative robust output regulation problem for a class of minimum phase linear multi‐agent systems in the sense that the controller allows the system uncertain parameters to vary in an arbitrarily prescribed compact subset. For this purpose, we introduce a new type of internal model that allows the cooperative robust output regulation problem of the given plant to be converted into a robust stabilization problem of an augmented multi‐agent system. We then solve our problem by combining a simultaneous high‐gain state feedback control technique and a distributed high‐gain observer technique. A special case of our result leads to the solution of the leader‐following robust consensus problem for a class of uncertain multi‐agent systems. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.