Robust control of nonlinear semi‐strict feedback systems using finite‐time disturbance observers

The output tracking controller design problem is dealt with for a class of nonlinear semi‐strict feedback systems in the presence of mismatched nonlinear uncertainties, external disturbances, and uncertain nonlinear virtual control coefficients of the subsystems. The controller is designed in a backstepping manner, and to avoid the shortcoming of ‘explosion of terms’, the dynamic surface control technique that employs a group of first‐order low‐pass filters is adopted. At each step of the virtual controller design, a robust feedback controller employing some effective nonlinear damping terms is designed to guarantee input‐to‐state practical stable property of the corresponding subsystem, so that the system states remain in the feasible domain. The virtual controller is enhanced by a finite‐time disturbance observer that estimates the disturbance term in a finite‐time. The properties of the composite control system are analyzed theoretically. Furthermore, by exploiting the cascaded structure of the control system, a simplified robust controller is proposed where only the first subsystem employs a disturbance observer. The performance of the proposed methods is confirmed by numerical examples. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive NN output‐feedback decentralized stabilization for a class of large‐scale stochastic nonlinear strict‐feedback systems

In this paper, the decentralized adaptive neural network (NN) output‐feedback stabilization problem is investigated for a class of large‐scale stochastic nonlinear strict‐feedback systems, which interact through their outputs. The nonlinear interconnections are assumed to be bounded by some unknown nonlinear functions of the system outputs. In each subsystem, only a NN is employed to compensate for all unknown upper bounding functions, which depend on its own output. Therefore, the controller design for each subsystem only need its own information and is more simplified than the existing results. It is shown that, based on the backstepping method and the technique of nonlinear observer design, the whole closed‐loop system can be proved to be stable in probability by constructing an overall state‐quartic and parameter‐quadratic Lyapunov function. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Observer‐based adaptive neural control for a class of nonlinear singular systems

The problem of observer‐based adaptive neural control via output feedback for a class of uncertain nonlinear singular systems is studied in this article. The nonlinear singular systems can be regarded as two subsystems that are coupled with each other: differential subsystem and algebraic subsystem. The differential systems can be nonstrict feedback structures. To guarantee that the singular system is regular and impulse‐free, two new conditions are proposed. By the conditions, the linear controller and observer, which are used to estimate the immeasurable state variables, are obtained. Then, an output feedback scheme through adaptive neural backstepping is proposed to ensure that all states of the closed‐loop system are semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded and converge to a small neighborhood of the origin. Simulation examples illustrate the effectiveness of the presented method.     

Observer‐based decentralized adaptive control for large‐scale pure‐feedback systems with unknown time‐delayed nonlinear interactions

This paper presents an approximation design for a decentralized adaptive output‐feedback control of large‐scale pure‐feedback nonlinear systems with unknown time‐varying delayed interconnections. The interaction terms are bounded by unknown nonlinear bounding functions including unmeasurable state variables of subsystems. These bounding functions together with the algebraic loop problem of virtual and actual control inputs in the pure‐feedback form make the output‐feedback controller design difficult and challenging. To overcome the design difficulties, the observer‐based dynamic surface memoryless local controller for each subsystem is designed using appropriate Lyapunov‐Krasovskii functionals, the function approximation technique based on neural networks, and the additional first‐order low‐pass filter for the actual control input. It is shown that all signals in the total controlled closed‐loop system are semiglobally uniformly bounded and control errors converge to an adjustable neighborhood of the origin. Finally, simulation examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed decentralized control scheme. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

State‐feedback stabilization for stochastic high‐order nonlinear systems with SISS inverse dynamics

This paper investigates the problem of state‐feedback control for a class of stochastic high‐order nonlinear systems with stochastic inverse dynamics. Under the assumption that the inverse dynamics of the subsystem are stochastic input‐to‐state stable (SISS), by extending through adding a power integrator technique, choosing an appropriate Lyapunov function and using the idea of changing supply function, a smooth state‐feedback controller is explicitly constructed to render the system globally asymptotically stable in probability and the states can be regulated to the origin. A simulation example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

Adaptive passification and stabilization for switched nonlinearly parameterized systems

This paper studies the issues of adaptive passification and global stabilization for a class of switched nonlinearly parameterized systems. Each subsystem is allowed to be non‐feedback passive. Firstly, a passivity concept for switched nonlinear systems is proposed. In particular, the change of storage functions of an inactive subsystem is described. An adaptively feedback passive switched nonlinear system is shown to be stabilized under the partly asymptotic zero‐state detectability assumption. Secondly, the adaptive feedback controller for each subsystem and a state‐dependent switching law are designed to render the resulting closed‐loop system passive. Finally, a new switched adaptive control technique is developed to solve the adaptive stabilization problem by exploiting the recursive feedback passification design technique and parameter separation technique when all subsystems have any same relative degree. The simulation results on adaptive stabilization of continuously stirred tank reactor system show effectiveness of the proposed design method. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Semi‐Global Output Feedback Stabilization for a Class of Uncertain Nonlinear Systems

This paper addresses the problem of semi‐global stabilization by output feedback for a class of nonlinear systems whose output gains are unknown. For each subsystem, we first design a state compensator and use the compensator states to construct a control law to stabilize the nominal linear system without the perturbing nonlinearities. Then, combining the output feedback domination approach with block‐backstepping scheme, a series of homogeneous output feedback controllers are constructed recursively for each subsystem and the closed‐loop system is rendered semi‐globally asymptotically stable.     

A dynamic observer for a synchronous machine†

The closed-loop optimal control law obtained for a linear time-invariant system always requires the entire state vector to be available for direct measurement. It is seldom that all the state variables of a physical system are available for measurement. A compatible dynamic observer of the Luenberger type is designed to reconstruct the entire state vector for a synchronous machine-infinite bus system. The performance of the system with the observer cascaded to the optimal controller is compared with the performance of the system when all the state variables are available for feedback. The transfer matrix relating the output and input is derived.     

Dynamic self‐triggered output‐feedback control for nonlinear stochastic systems with time delays

In this paper, the dynamic self‐triggered output‐feedback control problem is investigated for a class of nonlinear stochastic systems with time delays. To reduce the network resource consumption, the dynamic event‐triggered mechanism is implemented in the sensor‐to‐controller channel. Criteria are first established for the closed‐loop system to be stochastically input‐to‐state stable under the event‐triggered mechanism. Furthermore, sufficient conditions are given under which the closed‐loop system with dynamic event‐triggered mechanism is almost surely stable, and the output‐feedback controller as well as the dynamic event‐triggered mechanism are co‐designed. Moreover, a dynamic self‐triggered mechanism is proposed such that the nonlinear stochastic system with the designed output‐feedback controller is stochastically input‐to‐state stable and the Zeno phenomenon is excluded. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of proposed dynamic self‐triggered output‐feedback control scheme.     

A nonlinear state‐feedback state‐feedforward tracking control strategy for a boiler‐turbine unit

A boiler‐turbine unit is a primary module for coal‐fired power plants, and an effective automatic control system is needed for the boiler‐turbine unit to track the load changes with the drum water level kept within an acceptable range. The aim of this paper is to develop a nonlinear tracking controller for the Bell‐Åström boiler‐turbine unit. A Takagi‐Sugeno fuzzy control system is introduced for the nonlinear modeling of the Bell‐Åström boiler‐turbine unit. Based on the Takagi‐Sugeno fuzzy models, a nonlinear tracking controller is developed, and the proposed control law is comprised of a state‐feedforward term and a state‐feedback term. The stability of the closed‐loop control system is analyzed on the basis of Lyapunov stability theory via the linear matrix inequality approach and Schur complement. Moreover, model uncertainties are also considered, and it is proved that with the proposed control law the tracking error converges to zero. To assess the performance of the proposed nonlinear state‐feedback state‐feedforward control strategy, a nonlinear model predictive control strategy and a linear strategy are presented as comparisons. The effectiveness and the advantages of the proposed nonlinear state‐feedback state‐feedforward control strategy are demonstrated by simulations.     

Two‐stage stability control for strict‐feedback systems with input delays and input nonlinear uncertainties

In this paper, a two‐stage control procedure is proposed for stabilization of a class of strict‐feedback systems with unknown constant time delays and nonlinear uncertainties in the input. A nominal controller is first designed to compensate input time delays without considering input nonlinear uncertainties. Extended from backstepping algorithm, input delay compensation is realized by means of predicted states that are computed through integration of cascaded system dynamics, making the nominal closed‐loop system asymptotically stable. Based on the nominal controller presented for the input delay system, a multi‐timescale system is subsequently developed to estimate the unknown input nonlinearity and make the estimate approach the nominal control input as fast as possible. It is proved that the proposed control scheme can make states of the strict‐feedback systems converge to zero and all the signals of the closed‐loop systems are guaranteed to be bounded in the presence of input time delays and nonlinear uncertainties. Simulation verification is carried out to illuminate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.     

Smooth output feedback stabilization for a class of nonlinear systems with time‐varying powers

This paper investigates the global asymptotic stabilization problem for a class of nonlinear systems with time‐varying powers. First, adding a power integrator technique is revamped to design a smooth state feedback controller, which is implementable with only upper and lower bounds of the time‐varying powers. When the system state is not fully available and the time‐varying power is exactly known, a smooth output feedback controller constituted by a state feedback and a nonlinear state observer is constructed to globally stabilize the system. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust H∞ Control for Non‐Minimum Phase Switched Cascade Systems with Time Delay

The H_∞ control of a class of the uncertain switched nonlinear cascaded systems with time delay is explored in this paper via the multiple Lyapunov functions. The considered systems are assumed to comprise an inherently nonlinear and a linearizable nonlinear dynamic system that may be non‐minimum phase. A group of partial differential inequalities containing adjustable functions are used in the control design task. The state feedback controllers and a suitable switching law are designed simultaneously so as to achieve the desired disturbance attenuation while preserving asymptotic stability for all admissible uncertainties. The partial differential inequalities are of lower dimension than general Hamilton–Jacobi inequalities, and therefore the solving process is feasible. This particular technique is applicable even if no subsystem is asymptotically stable. The non‐minimum phase property is compensated for by means of an appropriate switching mechanism. A robust H_∞ control for non‐switched cascade system with time delay is obtained in addition. An illustrative example is given to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed design method.     

Output‐feedback control of a class of stochastic nonlinear systems with linearly bounded unmeasurable states

In this paper, the problems of stochastic disturbance attenuation and asymptotic stabilization via output feedback are investigated for a class of stochastic nonlinear systems with linearly bounded unmeasurable states. For the first problem, under the condition that the stochastic inverse dynamics are generalized stochastic input‐to‐state stable, a linear output‐feedback controller is explicitly constructed to make the closed‐loop system noise‐to‐state stable. For the second problem, under the conditions that the stochastic inverse dynamics are stochastic input‐to‐state stable and the intensity of noise is known to be a unit matrix, a linear output‐feedback controller is explicitly constructed to make the closed‐loop system globally asymptotically stable in probability. Using a feedback domination design method, we construct these two controllers in a unified way. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Passivity‐based asymptotic stabilization for switched nonlinear systems using the sampled integral stabilization technique

The asymptotic stabilization problem is studied for a cascade connection of passive switched nonlinear systems and a passive switched nonlinear system in this paper. When each subsystem is asymptotically zero state detectable and passive on active time intervals, asymptotic stabilization is achieved via co‐design of switching laws and controllers without damping injection. First, an output‐feedback controller is designed to asymptotically stabilize a cascade connection of two passive switched systems if outputs are measurable. Second, when the output of the first switched system is noisy or unmeasurable, a sampled integral stabilization (SIS) technique is employed to investigate asymptotical stabilization of a cascade connection by measuring only the storage function of the second switched system. Finally, as a special case of a cascade connection, the SIS technique is used to stabilize a passive switched system without damping injection. Under this circumstance, the controller is designed by sampling the integral of the passive output. The two‐link robot manipulator is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the SIS technique.     

Finite‐time tracking control of a nonholonomic mobile robot

In this paper, the finite‐time tracking problem is investigated for a nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot in a fifth‐order dynamic model. We consider the whole tracking error system as a cascaded system. Two continuous global finite‐time stabilizing controllers are designed for a second‐order subsystem and a third‐order subsystem respectively. Then finite‐time stability results for cascaded systems are employed to prove that the closed‐loop system satisfies the finite‐time stability. Thus the closed‐loop system can track the reference trajectory in finite‐time when the desired velocities satisfy some conditions. In particular, we discuss the control gains selection for the third‐order finite‐time controller and give sufficient conditions by using Lyapunov and backstepping techniques. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

Exponential quasi‐(Q,S,R)‐dissipativity and practical stability for switched nonlinear systems

In this paper, the problems of exponential quasi‐(Q,S,R)‐dissipativity and practical stability analysis for a switched nonlinear system are addressed. First, the concept of exponential quasi‐(Q,S,R)‐dissipativity for switched nonlinear systems without requiring the exponential quasi‐(Q,S,R)‐dissipativity property of each subsystem is proposed. Then, we show that an exponentially quasi‐(Q,S,R)‐dissipative switched nonlinear system is practically stable. Second, this exponential quasi‐(Q,S,R)‐ dissipativity property for a switched nonlinear system is obtained by the design of a state‐dependent switching law. Third, a composite state‐dependent switching law is designed to render the feedback interconnection of switched nonlinear systems exponentially quasi‐(Q,S,R)‐dissipative. This switching law allows interconnected switched nonlinear systems to switch asynchronously. Finally, the effectiveness of the results is verified by a numerical example.     

Controller design for nonlinear affine systems by control Lyapunov functions

This paper addresses the stabilization problems for nonlinear affine systems. First of all, the explicit feedback controller is developed for a nonlinear multiple-input affine system by assuming that there exists a control Lyapunov function. Next, based upon the homogeneous property, sufficient conditions for the continuity of the derived controller are developed. And then the developed control design methodology is applied to stabilize a class of nonlinear affine cascaded systems. It is shown that under some homogeneous assumptions on control Lyapunov functions and the interconnection term, the cascaded system can be globally stabilized. Finally, some interesting results of finite-time stabilization for nonlinear affine systems are also obtained.     

Anti‐windup synthesis for nonlinear dynamic inversion control schemes

A general anti‐windup (AW) compensation scheme is provided for a class of input constrained feedback‐linearizable nonlinear systems. The controller considered is an inner‐loop nonlinear dynamic inversion controller, augmented with an outer‐loop linear controller, of arbitrary structure. For open‐loop globally exponentially stable plants, it is shown that (i) there always exists a globally stabilizing AW compensator corresponding to a nonlinear generalization of the Internal‐Model‐Control (IMC) AW solution; (ii) important operator theoretic parallels exist between the AW design scheme for linear control and the suggested AW design scheme for nonlinear affine plants and (iii) a more attractive AW compensator may be obtained by using a nonlinear state‐feedback term, which plays a role similar to the linear state‐feedback term in linear coprime factor‐based AW compensation. The results are demonstrated on a dual‐tank simulation example. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.