Experimental evaluation of HJB optimal controllers for the attitude dynamics of a multirotor aerial vehicle

The present paper is concerned with the design and experimental evaluation of optimal control laws for the nonlinear attitude dynamics of a multirotor aerial vehicle. Three design methods based on Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation are taken into account. The first one is a linear control with guarantee of stability for nonlinear systems. The second and third are a nonlinear suboptimal control techniques. These techniques are based on an optimal control design approach that takes into account the nonlinearities present in the vehicle dynamics. The stability Proof of the closed-loop system is presented. The performance of the control system designed is evaluated via simulations and also via an experimental scheme using the Quanser 3-DOF Hover. The experiments show the effectiveness of the linear control method over the nonlinear strategy.     

自主飞艇侧滑角姿态建模及控制

针对特定结构的平流层信息平台——自主飞艇,建立侧滑角姿态动力学方程,并将这一分段函数表述为混杂逻辑方程。根据飞艇侧滑角姿态跟踪误差值的大小,判断其侧滑角姿态调整范围。当飞艇需要进行较大侧滑角姿态调整时,辅助推进系统产生附加力矩,采用基于极点配置的PID控制器,使得系统具有需要的动态特性和很好的可靠性能,对于较小的侧滑角姿态调整,改变方向舵操纵角,采用基于等效策略的滑模变结构控制器,保证系统具有很好的抗干扰性能及良好的跟踪精度。通过合理配置极点的位置,确定滑模面参数,设计出的0?-1逻辑触发器成功整合了这两种控制器在不同工况下的应用,避免了控制模式切换过程中常见的振动以致于系统失稳现象。数字仿真结果表明,采用的控制手段及整合方式是合理的。     

Adaptive integral LOS path following for an unmanned airship with uncertainties based on robust RBFNN backstepping

This paper investigates the path following control problem for an unmanned airship in the presence of unknown wind and uncertainties. The backstepping technique augmented by a robust adaptive radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) is employed as the main control framework. Based on the horizontal dynamic model of the airship, an improved adaptive integral line-of-sight (LOS) guidance law is first proposed, which suits any parametric paths. The guidance law calculates the desired yaw angle and estimates the wind. Then the controller is extended to cope with the airship yaw tracking and velocity control by resorting to the augmented backstepping technique. The uncertainties of the dynamics are compensated by using the robust RBFNNs. Each robust RBFNN utilizes an nth-order smooth switching function to combine a conventional RBFNN with a robust control. The conventional RBFNN dominates in the neural active region, while the robust control retrieves the transient outside the active region, so that the stability range can be widened. Stability analysis shows that the controlled closed-loop system is globally uniformly ultimately bounded. Simulations are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.     

Path following control for towing system of cylindrical drilling platform in presence of disturbances and uncertainties

Towing is a critical process to deploy a cylindrical drilling platform. However, the towing process faces a great variety of risks from a complex nautical environment, the dynamics in towing and maneuvering, to unexpected events. Therefore, safely navigating the towing system following a planned route to a target sea area is essential. To tackle the time-varying disturbances induced by wind, current and system parametric uncertainties, a path following control method for a towing system of cylindrical drilling platform is designed based on linear active disturbance rejection control. By utilizing Maneuvering Modeling Group model as well as a catenary model, we develop a three degree-of-freedom dynamic mathematical model of the towing system under external environmental disturbances and internal uncertainties. Furthermore, we design a linear active disturbance rejection control path following controller for real-time tracking error correction based on a guidance method combining cross-track error and parallax. Finally, the path following performance of the towing system is evaluated in a simulation environment under various disturbances and internal uncertainties, where the corresponding tracking error is analyzed. The results show that the linear active disturbance rejection control performs well under both the external disturbance and inherent uncertainties, and better satisfy the tracking performance criteria than a traditional proportional–integral–derivative controller.     

Flight control of a hexa-rotor airship: Uncertainty quantification for a range of temperature and pressure conditions

The present paper is concerned with the dynamic modeling and design of control laws for a small non-rigid multi-rotor airship constituted of an oblate-spheroid helium balloon coupled with an electric-powered hexa-rotor airframe. The vehicle is assumed to operate in windless and low-speed conditions. A six-degree-of-freedom nonlinear dynamic model is derived for it using the Newton–Euler approach and considering, among other efforts, a restoring torque due to the displacement of the balloon’s center of buoyancy above the vehicle’s center of mass and the added-mass effect resulting from the air–structure interaction. Using the derived model and assuming a time-scale separation between the translational and rotational dynamics, the attitude and position control laws are designed separately from each other. Both laws are formulated using feedback linearization combined with control input saturation within appropriate parallelepipedal sets, which are carefully chosen to respect pre-defined bounds on the control torque, control force and maximum inclination angle. The effect of temperature and pressure fluctuations is taken into account through a parametric probabilistic approach, where Maximum Entropy Principle is used to construct a physically consistent stochastic model and Monte Carlo method is used as the stochastic solver to propagate the uncertainties through the system. Extensive simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed control system and quantify the uncertainty of its performance over a wide range of local temperature and pressure.     

Active disturbance rejection based trajectory linearization control for hypersonic reentry vehicle with bounded uncertainties

This paper investigates a novel compound control scheme combined with the advantages of trajectory linearization control (TLC) and alternative active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) for hypersonic reentry vehicle (HRV) attitude tracking system with bounded uncertainties. Firstly, in order to overcome actuator saturation problem, nonlinear tracking differentiator (TD) is applied in the attitude loop to achieve fewer control consumption. Then, linear extended state observers (LESO) are constructed to estimate the uncertainties acting on the LTV system in the attitude and angular rate loop. In addition, feedback linearization (FL) based controllers are designed using estimates of uncertainties generated by LESO in each loop, which enable the tracking error for closed-loop system in the presence of large uncertainties to converge to the residual set of the origin asymptotically. Finally, the compound controllers are derived by integrating with the nominal controller for open-loop nonlinear system and FL based controller. Also, comparisons and simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the control strategy.     

Finite-time Extended State Observer based fault tolerant output feedback control for attitude stabilization

This work addresses the challenging problem of finite-time fault tolerant attitude stabilization control for the rigid spacecraft attitude control system without the angular velocity measurements, in the presence of external disturbances and actuator failures. Consider the severe circumstances with above failures and uncertainties, a novel continuous finite-time Extended State Observer is first established to observe the attitude angular velocity and the synthetic failure simultaneously. Unlike the existing observers, the finite-time methodology and Extended State Observer are utilized, to achieve the finite-time uniformly ultimately bounded stability of the attitude angular velocity and extended state observation errors. Furthermore, a novel continuous finite-time attitude controller is developed by using the nonsingular terminal sliding mode control and super-twisting method. The main feature of this work stems from our use of multiply advanced techniques or methodologies that enables the finite-time stability of the closed-loop attitude control system and the designed control scheme is continuous with the property of chattering restraining. Finally, numerical simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and fine performances of the finite-time observer and controller for the attitude control system.     

Robust adaptive backstepping neural networks control for spacecraft rendezvous and docking with input saturation

This paper presents a robust adaptive neural networks control strategy for spacecraft rendezvous and docking with the coupled position and attitude dynamics under input saturation. Backstepping technique is applied to design a relative attitude controller and a relative position controller, respectively. The dynamics uncertainties are approximated by radial basis function neural networks (RBFNNs). A novel switching controller consists of an adaptive neural networks controller dominating in its active region combined with an extra robust controller to avoid invalidation of the RBFNNs destroying stability of the system outside the neural active region. An auxiliary signal is introduced to compensate the input saturation with anti-windup technique, and a command filter is employed to approximate derivative of the virtual control in the backstepping procedure. Globally uniformly ultimately bounded of the relative states is proved via Lyapunov theory. Simulation example demonstrates effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.     

Compound fault-tolerant attitude control for hypersonic vehicle with reaction control systems in reentry phase

In this paper, a novel compound fault-tolerant attitude control (FTC) scheme is proposed for reentry hypersonic vehicles with aerodynamic surfaces and reaction control systems (RCS) in the presence of parameter uncertainties, external disturbances and aerodynamic surfaces faults. Aerodynamic surfaces work as the primary actuators and RCS serve as auxiliary actuators. When aerodynamic surfaces cannot provide the required attitude control torque due to low dynamic pressure or faults, RCS are activated to assist aerodynamic surfaces to generate the residual torque. A nonlinear disturbance observer-based sliding mode controller is designed to calculate the required attitude control torque which can handle the parametric uncertainties and external disturbances together. The quadratic programming method is applied to obtain the optimal aerodynamic surfaces deflections from the required control torque. An innovative fuzzy rule-based decision-making system is design to solve the RCS control allocation problem, which is conceptually easy to understand and computationally efficiently compared with existing approaches. Based on quantized control theory, the closed-loop control system stability is rigorously analyzed. Simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of developed FTC scheme.     

Robust fractional order sliding mode control of doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG)-based wind turbines

Wind power plants have nonlinear dynamics and contain many uncertainties such as unknown nonlinear disturbances and parameter uncertainties. Thus, it is a difficult task to design a robust reliable controller for this system. This paper proposes a novel robust fractional-order sliding mode (FOSM) controller for maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control of doubly fed induction generator (DFIG)-based wind energy conversion system. In order to enhance the robustness of the control system, uncertainties and disturbances are estimated using a fractional order uncertainty estimator. In the proposed method a continuous control strategy is developed to achieve the chattering free fractional order sliding-mode control, and also no knowledge of the uncertainties and disturbances or their bound is assumed. The boundedness and convergence properties of the closed-loop signals are proven using Lyapunov׳s stability theory. Simulation results in the presence of various uncertainties were carried out to evaluate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control scheme.     

Nonlinear robust control of hypersonic aircrafts with interactions between flight dynamics and propulsion systems

This paper addresses the nonlinear robust tracking controller design problem for hypersonic vehicles. This problem is challenging due to strong coupling between the aerodynamics and the propulsion system, and the uncertainties involved in the vehicle dynamics including parametric uncertainties, unmodeled model uncertainties, and external disturbances. By utilizing the feedback linearization technique, a linear tracking error system is established with prescribed references. For the linear model, a robust controller is proposed based on the signal compensation theory to guarantee that the tracking error dynamics is robustly stable. Numerical simulation results are given to show the advantages of the proposed nonlinear robust control method, compared to the robust loop-shaping control approach.     

Adaptive backstepping fault-tolerant control for flexible spacecraft with unknown bounded disturbances and actuator failures

In this paper, a robust adaptive fault-tolerant control approach to attitude tracking of flexible spacecraft is proposed for use in situations when there are reaction wheel/actuator failures, persistent bounded disturbances and unknown inertia parameter uncertainties. The controller is designed based on an adaptive backstepping sliding mode control scheme, and a sufficient condition under which this control law can render the system semi-globally input-to-state stable is also provided such that the closed-loop system is robust with respect to any disturbance within a quantifiable restriction on the amplitude, as well as the set of initial conditions, if the control gains are designed appropriately. Moreover, in the design, the control law does not need a fault detection and isolation mechanism even if the failure time instants, patterns and values on actuator failures are also unknown for the designers, as motivated from a practical spacecraft control application. In addition to detailed derivations of the new controller design and a rigorous sketch of all the associated stability and attitude error convergence proofs, illustrative simulation results of an application to flexible spacecraft show that high precise attitude control and vibration suppression are successfully achieved using various scenarios of controlling effective failures.     

球面3-RRR并联机构动力学建模与鲁棒-自适应迭代学习控制

采用Lagrange方法建立球面3-RRR并联机构基于动平台姿态参数的动力学模型。考虑在计算过程中采用线密度、厚度忽略等近似计算及工作过程中机构的磨损等微小变化造成的参数不确定性,进一步建立带参数不确定性的动力学模型。针对其在振动测试中的重复性动作等特点及参数不确定性设计鲁棒-自适应迭代学习控制器,并对此控制器进行稳定性证明。该控制器利用自适应算法对未知定常数的强大学习能力来补偿系统动力学模型的参数不确定项;利用迭代学习算法对期望轨迹进行零误差重复跟踪。由于该控制器吸取了系统动力学模型的已知信息,避免了一般模型未知系统迭代控制时必须满足的Lipschitz约束条件。仿真结果表明,在此控制器的作用下球面3-RRR并联机构能够很好地重复跟踪期望轨迹。     

树障清理空中机器人的姿态控制器设计

以一种用于对高压线路附近的树障进行清理的树障清理空中机器人为研究对象,分析其姿态控制问题。首先,建立了具有新型结构的树障清理空中机器人的姿态动力学模型和控制分配矩阵。然后,为了克服惯性矩阵的不确定性,采用滑模方法设计姿态控制器;同时,引入非线性函数来改进传统的边界层法以提高控制器性能;接着提出了一种切换控制分配矩阵的方法来解决空中机器人在切割作业过程中的动力学模型变化的问题。最后,在仿真平台上实现了上述控制器。实验结果表明,本滑模控制器具有良好的姿态控制性能,能有效克服机体惯量的不确定性;通过切换控制分配矩阵实现了空中机器人在切割作业过程中的姿态稳定。     

Robust integral variable structure controller and pulse-width pulse-frequency modulated input shaper design for flexible spacecraft with mismatched uncertainty/disturbance

This paper presents a dual-stage control system design method for the flexible spacecraft attitude maneuvering control by use of on–off thrusters and active vibration control by input shaper. In this design approach, attitude control system and vibration suppression were designed separately using lower order model. As a stepping stone, an integral variable structure controller with the assumption of knowing the upper bounds of the mismatched lumped perturbation has been designed which ensures exponential convergence of attitude angle and angular velocity in the presence of bounded uncertainty/disturbances. To reconstruct estimates of the system states for use in a full information variable structure control law, an asymptotic variable structure observer is also employed. In addition, the thruster output is modulated in pulse-width pulse-frequency so that the output profile is similar to the continuous control histories. For actively suppressing the induced vibration, the input shaping technique is used to modify the existing command so that less vibration will be caused by the command itself, which only requires information about the vibration frequency and damping of the closed-loop system. The rationale behind this hybrid control scheme is that the integral variable structure controller can achieve good precision pointing, even in the presence of uncertainties/disturbances, whereas the shaped input attenuator is applied to actively suppress the undesirable vibrations excited by the rapid maneuvers. Simulation results for the spacecraft model show precise attitude control and vibration suppression.     

平流层平台的发展及其自主控制关键技术

平流层平台借助于平流层稳定的气象条件和良好的电磁特性,在通信、观测和遥感等领域有着广阔的应用前景和极大的发展潜力。中首先介绍了平流层平台的工作环境、应用领域、主要形式及其特点,然后总结分析了世界各国近年来对平流层平台的研究现状,最后指出了其自主控制的特殊性以及要解决的关键问题？     

轿车参数化分析模型的构造及应用研究

给出了基于三箱式轿车结构共性的参数化分析模型,并根据车身概念设计的流程和特点构建了概念设计阶段的车身开发平台,实现了轿车参数化分析模型和车身开发平台的信息集成,使设计人员可以在统一的操作环境下基本实现对汽车车身概念设计过程的控制。系统实现了车身早期开发CAD与CAE的集成,提高了结构方案选择的效率和结构设计的可靠性。     

Application of Near-Space Passive Radar for Homeland Security

To protect the homeland from terrorist attacks employing explosive devices, revolutionary advances across a wide range of technologies are required. Inspired by recent advances in near-space (defined as the region between 20 km and 100 km), this paper proposes a new passive radar system using opportunistic transmitter as an illuminator and near-space platform as a receiver. This concept differs substantially from current radars. This system can be operated as a passive bistatic or multistatic radar and hence largely immune to jamming. By placing the receiver in near-space platforms, many functions that are currently performed with satellites or airplanes could be performed much more cheaply and with much greater operational utility. These advantages make near-space passive attractive for a variety of applications, many of which fit well with the needs of homeland security. This paper details the role of near-space passive radar as sensor system that can support homeland security applications. The strengths and weakness of near-space passive radar, compared to current spaceborne and airborne radars, are detailed. The signal models and processing algorithms for near-space passive radar are provided. It is shown that the use of cost effective near-space platforms can provide the solutions that were previously thought to be out of reach to remote sensing and government customers.     

Automatic performance estimation of conceptual temperature control system design for rapid development of real system

This paper presents an automatic performance estimation scheme of conceptual temperature control system with multi-heater configuration prior to constructing the physical system for achieving rapid validation of the conceptual design. An appropriate low-order discrete-time model, which will be used in the controller design, is constructed after determining several basic factors including the geometric shape of controlled object and heaters, material properties, heater arrangement, etc. The proposed temperature controller, which adopts the multivariable GPC (generalized predictive control) scheme with scale factors, is then constructed automatically based on the above model. The performance of the conceptual temperature control system is evaluated by using a FEM (finite element method) simulation combined with the controller.