Issues,progress and new results in robust adaptive control

We overview recent progress in the field of robust adaptive control with special emphasis on methodologies that use multiple‐model architectures. We argue that the selection of the number of models, estimators and compensators in such architectures must be based on a precise definition of the robust performance requirements. We illustrate some of the concepts and outstanding issues by presenting a new methodology that blends robust non‐adaptive mixed µ‐synthesis designs and stochastic hypothesis‐testing concepts leading to the so‐called robust multiple model adaptive control (RMMAC) architecture. A numerical example is used to illustrate the RMMAC design methodology, as well as its strengths and potential shortcomings. The later motivated us to develop a variant architecture, denoted as RMMAC/XI, that can be effectively used in highly uncertain exogenous plant disturbance environments. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive robust control of a class of nonlinear systems in semi‐strict feedback form with non‐uniformly detectable unmeasured internal states

This paper proposes a novel control method for a special class of nonlinear systems in semi‐strict feedback form. The main characteristic of this class of systems is that the unmeasured internal states are non‐uniformly detectable, which means that no observer for these states can be designed to make the observation error exponentially converge to zero. In view of this, a projection‐based adaptive robust control law is developed in this paper for this kind of system. This method uses a projection‐type adaptation algorithm for the estimation of both the unknown parameters and the internal states. Robust feedback term is synthesized to make the system robust to uncertain nonlinearities and disturbances. Although the estimation error for both the unknown parameters and the internal states may not converge to zero, the tracking error of the closed‐loop system is proved to converge to zero asymptotically if the system has only parametric uncertainties. Furthermore, it is theoretically proved that all the signals are bounded, and the control algorithm is robust to bounded disturbances and uncertain nonlinearities with guaranteed output tracking transient performance and steady‐state accuracy in general. The class of system considered here has wide engineering applications, and a practical example—control of mechanical systems with dynamic friction—is used as a case study. Simulation results are obtained to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed control methodology. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Accommodation of unknown actuator faults using output feedback‐based adaptive robust control

In this paper, we solve the problem of output tracking for linear uncertain systems in the presence of unknown actuator failures using discontinuous projection‐based output feedback adaptive robust control (ARC). The faulty actuators are characterized as unknown inputs stuck at unknown values experiencing bounded disturbance and actuators losing effectiveness at unknown instants of time. Many existing techniques to solve this problem use model reference adaptive control (MRAC), which may not be well suited for handling various disturbances and modeling errors inherent to any realistic system model. Robust control‐based fault‐tolerant schemes have guaranteed transient performance and are capable of dealing with modeling errors to certain degrees. But, the steady‐state tracking accuracy of robust controllers, e.g. sliding mode controller, is limited. In comparison, the backstepping‐based output feedback adaptive robust fault‐tolerant control (ARFTC) strategy presented here can effectively deal with such uncertainties and overcome the drawbacks of individual adaptive and robust controls. Comparative simulation studies are performed on a linearized Boeing 747 model, which shows the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive output feedback dynamic surface control of stochastic nonlinear systems with state and input unmodeled dynamics

In this paper, an adaptive neural output feedback control scheme is investigated for a class of stochastic nonlinear systems with unmeasured states and four kinds of uncertainties including uncertain nonlinear function, dynamic disturbance, input unmodeled dynamics, and stochastic inverse dynamics. The unmeasured states are estimated by K‐filters, and stochastic inverse dynamics is dealt with by constructing a changing supply function. The considered input unmodeled dynamic subsystem possesses nonlinear feature, and a dynamic normalization signal is introduced to counteract the unstable effect produced by the input unmodeled dynamics. Combining dynamic surface control technique with stochastic input‐to‐state stability, small‐gain condition, and Chebyshev's inequality, the designed robust adaptive controller can guarantee that all the signals in the closed‐loop system are bounded in probability, and the error signals are semi‐globally uniformly ultimately bounded in mean square or the sense of four‐moment. Simulation results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coordinated semi‐adaptive closed‐loop control for infusion of two interacting medications

This paper presents a coordinated and semi‐adaptive closed‐loop control approach to the infusion of 2 interacting medications. The proposed approach consists of an upper‐level coordination controller and a lower‐level semi‐adaptive controller. The coordination controller recursively adjusts the reference targets based on the estimated dose‐response relationship of a patient to ensure that they can be achieved by the patient. The semi‐adaptive controller drives the patient outputs to the reference targets while estimating the patient's dose‐response relationship online. In this way, the controller is resilient to unachievable caregiver‐specified reference targets and responsive to the medication needs of individual patients. To establish the proposed approach, we developed the following: (1) a linear two‐input–two‐output dose‐response model; (2) a two‐input–two‐output semi‐adaptive controller to regulate the patient outputs while adapting high‐sensitivity parameters in the patient model; and (3) a coordination controller to adjust the reference targets that reconcile caregiver inputs and medication use. The proposed approach was applied to an example scenario in which cardiac output and respiratory rate are regulated via infusion of propofol and remifentanil in an in silico simulation setting. The results show that the coordinated semi‐adaptive control could (1) track achievable reference targets with consistent transient and steady‐state performance and (2) resiliently adjust the unachievable reference targets to achievable ones.     

Adaptive robust dynamic surface control with composite adaptation laws

This paper focuses on an adaptive robust dynamic surface control (ARDSC) with composite adaptation laws (CAL) for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems in semi‐strict feedback form. A simple and effective controller has been obtained by introducing dynamic surface control (DSC) technique and designing novel adaptation laws. First, the ‘explosion of terms’ problem caused by backstepping method in the traditional adaptive robust control (ARC) is avoided. Meanwhile, through a new proof philosophy the asymptotical output tracking that the ARC possesses is theoretically preserved. Second, when persistent excitation (PE) condition satisfies, true parameter estimates could be acquired via designing CALs which integrate the information of estimation errors. Finally, simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive robust control of nonlinear systems with dynamic uncertainties

In this paper, the discontinuous projection‐based adaptive robust control (ARC) approach is extended to a class of nonlinear systems subjected to parametric uncertainties as well as all three types of nonlinear uncertainties—uncertainties could be state‐dependent, time‐dependent, and/or dynamic. Departing from the existing robust adaptive control approach, the proposed approach differentiates between dynamic uncertainties with and without known structural information. Specifically, adaptive robust observers are constructed to eliminate the effect of dynamic uncertainties with known structural information for an improved steady‐state output tracking performance—asymptotic output tracking is achieved when the system is subjected to parametric uncertainties and dynamic uncertainties with known structural information only. In addition, dynamic normalization signals are introduced to construct ARC laws to deal with other uncertainties including dynamic uncertainties without known structural information not only for global stability but also for a guaranteed robust performance in general. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust adaptive dynamic surface control for linear time‐varying systems

In this paper, robust output‐feedback tracking control is considered for a class of linear time‐varying plants whose time‐varying parameters are unknown bounded with bounded derivatives and output is affected by unknown bounded additive disturbances. Using adaptive dynamic surface control technique, the proposed scheme possesses the following advantages: (1) the design procedure is simple and the control law is easy to be implemented, and (2) by introducing an initialization technique, together with adjusting some design parameters, the performance of system tracking error can be guaranteed regardless of the time variation. It is proved that with the proposed scheme, all the closed‐loop signals are semi‐globally uniformly ultimately bounded. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust adaptive tracking control of uncertain discrete time systems

In this paper, the problem of robust adaptive tracking for uncertain discrete‐time systems is considered from the slowly varying systems point of view. The class of uncertain discrete‐time systems considered is subjected to both 𝓁_∞ to 𝓁_∞ bounded unstructured uncertainty and external additive bounded disturbances. A priori knowledge of the dynamic model of the reference signal to be tracked is not completely known. For such problem, an indirect adaptive tracking controller is obtained by frozen‐time controllers that at each time optimally robustly stabilize the estimated models of the plant and minimize the worst‐case steady‐state absolute value of the tracking error of the estimated model over the model uncertainty. Based on 𝓁_∞ to 𝓁_∞ stability and performance of slowly varying system found in the literature, the proposed adaptive tracking scheme is shown to have good robust stability. Moreover, a computable upper bound on the size of the unstructured uncertainty permitted by the adaptive system and a computable tight upper bound on asymptotic robust steady‐state tracking performance are provided. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive robust output‐feedback motion control of hydraulic actuators

Most previous advanced motion control of hydraulic actuators used full‐state feedback control techniques. However, in many cases, only position feedback is available, and thus, there are imperious demands for output‐feedback control for hydraulic systems. This paper firstly transforms a hydraulic model into an output feedback–dependent form. Thus, the K‐filter can be employed, which provides exponentially convergent estimates of the unmeasured states. Furthermore, this observer has an extended filter structure so that online parameter adaptation can be utilized. In addition, it is a well‐known fact that any realistic model of a hydraulic system suffers from significant extent of uncertain nonlinearities and parametric uncertainties. This paper constructs an adaptive robust controller with backstepping techniques, which is able to take into account not only the effect of parameter variations coming from various hydraulic parameters but also the effect of hard‐to‐model nonlinearities such as uncompensated friction forces, modeling errors, and external disturbances. Moreover, estimation errors that come from initial state estimates and uncompensated disturbances are dealt with via certain robust feedback at each step of the adaptive robust backstepping design. After that, a detailed stability analysis for the output‐feedback closed‐loop system is scrupulously checked, which shows that all states are bounded and that the controller achieves a guaranteed transient performance and final tracking accuracy in general and asymptotic output tracking in the presence of parametric uncertainties only. Extensive experimental results are obtained for a hydraulic actuator system and verify the high‐performance nature of the proposed output‐feedback control strategy.     

Intelligent control using multiple models and neural networks

Most adaptive control algorithms for nonlinear discrete time systems become invalid when the controlled systems have non‐minimum phase properties and large uncertainties. In this paper, an intelligent control method using multiple models and neural networks (NN) is developed to deal with those problems. The proposed control method includes a set of fixed controllers, a re‐initialized neural network (NN) adaptive controller and a free‐running NN adaptive controller. The bounded‐input‐bounded‐output (BIBO) stability and performance convergence of the system are guaranteed by the free‐running adaptive controller, while the multiple fixed controllers and the re‐initialized adaptive controller are used to improve the transient response. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Neural adaptive robust output feedback control of wheeled mobile robots with saturating actuators

This paper addresses the output feedback tracking control problem of electrically driven wheeled mobile robots subjected to actuator constraints. The main drawback of previously proposed controllers is the actuator saturation problem, which degrades the transient performance of the closed‐loop control system. In order to alleviate this problem, a saturated tracking controller has been proposed using the hyperbolic tangent function. A new nonlinear observer is introduced in order to leave out the velocity sensors in the robot system to decrease the cost and weight of the system for practical applications. A dynamic surface control strategy is effectively used to reduce the design complexity when considering actuator dynamics. In addition, neural network approximation capabilities and adaptive robust techniques are also adopted to improve the tracking performance in the presence of uncertain nonlinearities and unknown parameters. Semi‐global stability of the closed‐loop system is presented using direct Lyapunov method. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control system for a differential drive mobile robot in practice. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive fuzzy output feedback backstepping control of pure‐feedback nonlinear systems via dynamic surface control technique

In this paper, an adaptive fuzzy backstepping dynamic surface control approach is considered for a class of uncertain pure‐feedback nonlinear systems with immeasurable states. Fuzzy logic systems are first employed to approximate the unknown nonlinear functions, and then an adaptive fuzzy state observer is designed to estimate the immeasurable states. By the combination of the adaptive backstepping design with a dynamic surface control technique, an adaptive fuzzy output feedback backstepping control approach is developed. It is proven that all the signals of the resulting closed‐loop system are semi‐globally uniformly ultimately bounded, and the observer and tracking errors converge to a small neighborhood of the origin by choosing the design parameters appropriately. Simulation examples are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust adaptive steering control for unmanned surface vehicle with unknown control direction and input saturation

A robust adaptive steering control method is proposed to solve the control problem of the unmanned surface vehicle (USV) with uncertainties, unknown control direction, and input saturation. In the controller design process, the adaptive fuzzy system is incorporated into dynamic surface control (DSC) to approximate the uncertainty term induced by external environmental disturbances and model parameters. Then, the Nussbaum function is used to eliminate the requirement for a priori knowledge of the control direction. Besides, to handle the input saturation, the adaptive fuzzy DSC is extended by a second‐order nonlinear filter and antisaturation auxiliary function to compensate for the magnitude and rate saturation of the rudder. All signals of the closed‐loop system are proven to be uniformly ultimately bounded (UUB) by Lyapunov theorem and the Lemma of Nussbaum gain, and the course error can converge to a small neighborhood of zero through choosing design parameters appropriately. Finally, simulation results and comprehensive comparisons are shown for the USV course system, which is demonstrative of the proposed controller's effectiveness and robustness.     

An improved adaptive dynamic surface control approach for uncertain nonlinear systems

Dynamic surface control (DSC) was developed to eliminate the “explosion of complexity” problem in backstepping procedure. However, as demonstrated in this paper, the obtained results by the existing DSC technique are somewhat conservative, which may pose difficulties in system debugging for realistic applications. This work addresses a modification that yields an improved adaptive DSC approach for tracking control of a class of semi‐strict feedback systems. The new method introduces nonlinear adaptive filters instead of the first‐order low pass ones to avoid repeatedly differentiating the virtual control signals. Meanwhile, novel flat zone introduced Lyapunov functions, which have dead zones in the prespecified neighborhood of the origin, are employed to design and analyze the improved robust adaptive control law. As a result, the developed control scheme exhibits three distinct features in comparison with the existing DSC strategy as follows: (1) global rather than semiglobal tracking is achieved even in the presence of nonlinear function nonlinearities; (2) the ultimate tracking accuracy can be exactly known before the controller is implemented; and (3) the ranges of the design parameters to guarantee the closed‐loop stability and ultimate tracking accuracy can be completely determined a priori, and the design parameters can be freely chosen from the feasible ranges to improve the control performance. Finally, two examples are presented to confirm the effectiveness of the established approach.     

Direct adaptive neural control of nonlinear strict‐feedback systems with unmodeled dynamics using small‐gain approach

In this paper, a novel direct adaptive neural control approach is presented for a class of single‐input and single‐output strict‐feedback nonlinear systems with nonlinear uncertainties, unmodeled dynamics, and dynamic disturbances. Radial basis function neural networks are used to approximate the unknown and desired control signals, and a direct adaptive neural controller is constructed by combining the backstepping technique and the property of hyperbolic tangent function. It is shown that the proposed control scheme can guarantee that all signals in the closed‐loop system are semi‐globally uniformly ultimately bounded in mean square. The main advantage of this paper is that a novel adaptive neural control scheme with only one adaptive law is developed for uncertain strict‐feedback nonlinear systems with unmodeled dynamics. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive enhanced sliding mode control for permanent magnet synchronous motor drives

An adaptive enhanced sliding mode control (AESMC) scheme for the position tracking control of permanent magnet synchronous motor drives is proposed in this paper. The AESMC system is composed of three controllers: the adaptive model compensation controller, which is used to compensate for the parameter perturbations to achieve perfect tracking; the hitting controller, which is considered to attenuate the effect of external load disturbance and the compensation error; and the robust feedback controller, which is used to enhance the stability of the closed‐loop system and to improve the transient performance while the AESMC is in the learning process. Moreover, the bound of the lumped disturbance is assumed to be unknown, and an adaptive mechanism is investigated to estimate this bound. Simulation results show that the proposed AESMC scheme has a favorable tracking performance in spite of various model uncertainties. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Further results on stable weighted multiple model adaptive control: Discrete‐time stochastic plant

A new weighting algorithm is proposed to relax the convergence conditions and to improve the convergence rate for weighted multiple model adaptive control systems. The stability and convergence of the corresponding weighted multiple model adaptive control systems of two types of stochastic plants, one is linear time‐invariant system (LTI) with unknown parameters, the other is linear time‐varying system with jumping parameters, are proved. Finally, some simulation results are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed weighting algorithm and the performance of the closed‐loop control system. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive output feedback actuator failure compensation for a class of non‐linear systems

An adaptive compensation control scheme using output feedback is designed and analysed for a class of non‐linear systems with state‐dependent non‐linearities in the presence of unknown actuator failures. For a linearly parameterized model of actuator failures with unknown failure values, time instants and pattern, a robust backstepping‐based adaptive non‐linear controller is employed to handle the system failure, parameter and dynamics uncertainties. Robust adaptive parameter update laws are derived to ensure closed‐loop signal boundedness and small tracking errors, in general, and asymptotic regulation, in particular. An application to controlling the angle of attack of a non‐linear hypersonic aircraft dynamic model in the presence of elevator segment failures is studied and simulation results show that the developed adaptive control scheme has desired actuator failure compensation performance. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiple characteristic model‐based golden‐section adaptive control: Stability and optimization

The characteristic model‐based golden‐section adaptive control (CM‐GSAC) law has been developed for over 20 years in China with a broad range of applications in various fields. However, quite a few theoretical problems remain open despite its satisfying performance in practice. This paper revisits the stability of the CM‐GSAC from its very beginning and explores the underlying implications of the so‐called golden‐section parameter l₂≈0.618. The closed‐loop system, which consists of the CM and the GSAC, is a discrete time‐varying system, and its stability is discussed from three perspectives. First, attentions have been paid to select the optimal controller coefficients such that the closed‐loop system exhibits the best transient performance in the worst case. Second, efforts are made to improve the robustness in the presence of parameter estimation errors, which provide another choice when designing the adaptive controller. Finally, by measuring the slowly time‐varying nature in an explicit inequality form, a bridge is built between the instantaneous stability and the time‐varying stability. In order to relax the constraints on the parameter bounds of the CM, the GSAC is further extended to multiple CMs, which shows more satisfying tracking performance than that of the traditional multiple model adaptive control method. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.