An enhanced anti-disturbance attitude control law for flexible spacecrafts subject to multiple disturbances

As well-known disturbance rejection methods, active disturbance rejection control and disturbance observer-based control can effectively improve the control performances of complex systems in the presence of disturbances. However, the accurate rejection of multiple disturbances for control systems of practical engineering, for example, the attitude control system of flexible spacecraft, is still a bottleneck problem. In order to further improve the anti-disturbance capability and reduce the conservativeness, this paper proposes a novel enhanced anti-disturbance control law for the attitude control system of flexible spacecraft by combining active disturbance rejection control and disturbance observer-based control in a unified framework. More specifically, the disturbance from flexible vibration is described by an uncertain exogenous system based on the partially known information including elastic damping ratios and modal frequencies. The disturbance observer-based control is utilized to estimate and thereby reject this disturbance. On the other hand, the other disturbances such as external environmental disturbance and complex model nonlinearity are merged into a equivalent disturbance with bounded derivative, which is compensated by using the active disturbance rejection control law. Stability and robustness analysis are carried out for the disturbance observer and extended state observer. Finally, simulation results of low-earth-orbit flexible satellite are presented to verify the effectiveness of proposed methods.     

Sliding mode control assisted by GPI observers for tracking tasks of a nonlinear multivariable Twin-Rotor aerodynamical system

This paper explores the techniques based on Generalized Proportional Integral Observers (GPI), under the approach of active disturbance rejection, applied to the control of multivariable nonlinear systems with the same number of inputs and outputs (square). As a central axis, a sliding mode control scheme assisted by GPI observers is proposed. These observers are responsible for estimating the disturbances associated with the dynamics of the sliding surfaces produced by non-linearities, not modeled elements, parameter uncertainty and external disturbances. This process allows the creation of sliding regimes under the point of view of decoupled control. As a case study, the position control of a small-scale 2-DOF helicopter affected by adverse operating conditions, such as unknown external disturbances and actuator faults, is considered. Finally, experimental results that validate the proposed control strategy and a comparison with a linear GPI observer-based active disturbance rejection control scheme are presented.     

具有非匹配扰动的非线性变参数系统模型参考跟踪控制

本文研究了一类含有非匹配扰动的非线性变参数系统的跟踪控制问题.首先,设计非线性扰动观测器用于估计系统所受到的未知扰动.其次,在前馈–反馈跟踪控制器中引入扰动补偿控制项,提出一种基于扰动观测器的跟踪控制策略.利用依赖于状态和时变参数的线性矩阵不等式,导出保证闭环系统输入–状态稳定的充分条件,进而运用平方和凸优化技术解析地构造出扰动观测器和跟踪控制器.通过理论证明,所设计的控制策略能够实现非线性变参数系统输出对参考模型输出的跟踪,消除输出通道中非匹配扰动的影响.最后,由数值仿真例子验证了所提方法的有效性.     

Coordination of multi-agent systems under switching topologies via disturbance observer-based approach

In this paper, a leader-following coordination problem of heterogeneous multi-agent systems is considered under switching topologies where each agent is subject to some local (unbounded) disturbances. While these unknown disturbances may disrupt the performance of agents, a disturbance observer-based approach is employed to estimate and reject them. Varying communication topologies are also taken into consideration, and their byproduct difficulties are overcome by using common Lyapunov function techniques. According to the available information in difference cases, two disturbance observer-based protocols are proposed to solve this problem. Their effectiveness is verified by simulations.     

Robust observer-based optimal linear quadratic tracker for five-degree-of-freedom sampled-data active magnetic bearing system

This paper presents three observer/Kalman filter identification (OKID) approaches and develops a robust observer-based optimal linear quadratic digital tracker (LQDT) for the five-degree-of-freedom (five-DOF) sampled-data active magnetic bearing (AMB) system with various disturbances. The more detailed objectives are: (i) to construct both an equivalent linear time-invariant discrete-time model and its state estimator via the proposed OKID approaches for the AMB system, which might be an unknown nonlinear time-varying unstable system with both a specified rotation speed and a sampling rate; (ii) to provide an adaptive disturbance estimation scheme, which establishes an equivalent input disturbance (EID) estimator for the AMB system with unexpected disturbances; and (iii) to develop a robust observer-based optimal LQDT for the sampled-data AMB system with both a pre-specified time-varying speed and unexpected disturbances. The developed LQDT is able to recover the displacement of the rotor to the pre-specified trajectory position whenever it deviates from such trajectory.     

Improved disturbance rejection for predictor-based control of MIMO linear systems with input delay

In this paper, we are concerned with the predictor-based control of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) linear systems with input delay and disturbances. By taking the future values of disturbances into consideration, a new improved predictive scheme is proposed. Compared with the existing predictive schemes, our proposed predictive scheme can achieve a finite-time exact state prediction for some smooth disturbances including the constant disturbances, and a better disturbance attenuation can also be achieved for a large class of other time-varying disturbances. The attenuation of mismatched disturbances for second-order linear systems with input delay is also investigated by using our proposed predictor-based controller.     

Composite Hierarchical Anti-Disturbance Control of a Quadrotor UAV in the Presence of Matched and Mismatched Disturbances

Quadrotor helicopter is an unstable system subject to matched and mismatched disturbances. To stabilize the quadrotor dynamics in the presence of these disturbances, the application of a composite hierarchical anti-disturbance controller, combining a sliding mode controller and a disturbance observer, is presented in this paper. The disturbance observer is used to attenuate the effect of constant and slow time-varying disturbances. Whereas, the sliding mode controller is used to attenuate the effect of fast time-varying disturbances. In addition, sliding mode control attenuates the effect of the disturbance observer estimation errors of the constant and slow time-varying disturbances. In this approach, the upper bounds of the disturbance observer estimation errors are required instead of the disturbances’ upper bounds. The disturbance observer estimation errors are found to be bounded when the disturbance observer dynamics are asymptotically stable and the disturbance derivatives and initial disturbances are bounded. Moreover, due to the highly nonlinear nature of the quadrotor dynamics, the upper bounds of a part of the quadrotor states and disturbance estimates are required. The nonlinear terms in the rotational dynamics are considered as disturbances, part of which is mismatched. This assumption simplifies the control system design by dividing the quadrotor’s model into a position subsystem and a heading subsystem, and designing a controller for each separately. The stability analysis of the closed loop system is carried out using Lyapunov stability arguments. The effectiveness of the developed control scheme is demonstrated in simulations by applying different sources of disturbances such as wind gusts and partial actuator failure.     

一类随机系统基于干扰观测器的抗干扰控制

针对一类带有多源干扰的随机系统,研究其抗干扰控制问题.针对可以由未知参数的外源系统产生,代表频率、振幅和初相都未知的干扰,构建随机自适应干扰观测器对其进行估计.基于此,结合自适应控制和随机控制的方法,提出基于干扰观测器的抗干扰控制策略,保证复合系统的所有信号均为均方渐近有界.仿真结果验证了所提出方法的正确性和有效性.     

Disturbance rejection based tracking control design for fuzzy switched systems with time-varying delays and disturbances

The disturbance rejection and tracking problem of T-S fuzzy switched systems with uncertainties, input time-varying delays and disturbances is addressed in this article. For that cause, a modified repetitive control protocol based on the improved-equivalent-input-disturbance (IEID) estimator and extended Smith predictor approach has been proposed, which guarantees the perfect disturbance estimation and tracking performances with high precision. Specifically, by incorporating the transfer function of main feedback path in conventional Smith predictor block, the input time-varying delays are effectively compensated. In the direction of estimating the disturbances, an active disturbance rejection technique called IEID estimator approach is precisely considered. By exploiting the output of the IEID estimator and parallel distributed compensation strategy, the fuzzy rule based modified repetitive control system is formulated. Further, by making use of Lyapunov method together with average dwell-time approach, a set of sufficient conditions in the form of matrix inequalities are established. More respectively, by solving the developed matrix inequalities, the controller and observer gain matrices are determined. At last, the method proposed in this work is validated in terms of presenting the simulation results of two numerical examples, including boiler-turbine system.     

Data‑driven disturbance observer‑based control: an active disturbance rejection approach

In this paper, a data-driven method for disturbance estimation and rejection is presented. The proposed approach is divided into two stages: an inner stabilization loop, to set the desired reference model, together with an outer loop for disturbance estimation and compensation. Inspired by the active disturbance rejection control framework, the exogenous and endogenous disturbances are lumped into a total disturbance signal. This signal is estimated using an on-line algorithm based on a datadriven predictor scheme, whose parameters are chosen to satisfy high robustness-performance criteria. The above process is presented as a novel enhancement to design a disturbance observer, which constitutes the main contribution of the paper. In addition, the control strategy is completely presented in discrete time, avoiding the use of discretization methods for its digital implementation. As a case study, the voltage control of a DC-DC synchronous buck converter afected by disturbances in the input voltage and the load is considered. Finally, experimental results that validate the proposed strategy and some comparisons with the classical disturbance observer-based control are presented.     

A generalized exact tracking control methodology for disturbed nonlinear systems via homogeneous domination approach

A generalized homogeneous exact set‐point tracking control methodology for a class of disturbed higher‐order nonlinear systems is investigated in this paper. By virtue of utilizing the disturbance estimation and active elimination approach, a homogeneous domination feedback technique is then integrated such that a generalized composite active anti‐disturbance control framework is proposed with a delicate handling procedure of the non‐vanishing nonlinearities. The proposed methodology has several new features. First, a genuine nonlinear composite controller employing the system nonlinearities will bring an improvement of the control performances. Second, the flexility of the design methodology renders its suitability for random output tracking with mismatched disturbances in every channel. Moreover, the control function is constructed in a neat nested form and hence easier to be implemented. Numerical simulation results affirm the output tracking control performances. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Neural network approximation for periodically disturbed functions and applications to control design

This paper addresses the approximation problem of functions affected by unknown periodically time-varying disturbances. By combining Fourier series expansion into multilayer neural network or radial basis function neural network, we successfully construct two kinds of novel approximators, and prove that over a compact set, the new approximators can approximate a continuously and periodically disturbed function to arbitrary accuracy. Then, we apply the proposed approximators to disturbance rejection in the first-order nonlinear control systems with periodically time-varying disturbances, but it is straightforward to extend the proposed design methods to higher-order systems by using adaptive backstepping technique. A simulation example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of control schemes designed in this paper.     

Anti-disturbance control for time-varying delay Markovian jump nonlinear systems with multiple disturbances

In this paper, the problem of composite anti-disturbance resilient control is addressed for time-varying delay Markovian jump nonlinear systems with multiple disturbances. The disturbances are assumed to include two parts: the first one in the input channel is described by an external system with perturbations; the second one is supposed to be bounded H₂ norm. By combining disturbance observer and L₂–L_∞ control method, the disturbances are attenuated and rejected, simultaneously, and the desired dynamic performance can be obtained for time-varying delay Markovian jump nonlinear systems. Moreover, the gains of the resilient controller and the observer are acquired by applying linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) technology. Finally, an application example is presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Disturbance observer-based quadrotor attitude tracking control for aggressive maneuvers

In this paper, a disturbance observer-based quadrotor attitude controller for aggressive maneuvering is presented. The controller is made up of the cascade connection between two control-loops: an outer quaternion-based attitude control-loop and an inner disturbance observer-based angular velocity tracking control-loop. The disturbance observer is designed to estimate and compensate for the Coriolis term and the external disturbances. It is shown that, for fast maneuvers, the disturbance observer needs to take into account the motor dynamics. This allows to notably increase the observer bandwidth, leading to significant improvements in the disturbance rejection capabilities. The stability of the resulting closed-loop is analyzed. Also, different simulations and flight tests are carried out to validate the main results, showing an outstanding tracking performance when aggressive attitude maneuvers are being executed, even in the presence of strong disturbances such as suspended payloads.     

Observer-based adaptive iterative learning control for nonlinear systems with time-varying delays

An observer-based adaptive iterative learning control (AILC) scheme is developed for a class of nonlinear systems with unknown time-varying parameters and unknown time-varying delays. The linear matrix inequality (LMI) method is employed to design the nonlinear observer. The designed controller contains a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) feedback term in time domain. The learning law of unknown constant parameter is differential-difference-type, and the learning law of unknown time-varying parameter is difference-type. It is assumed that the unknown delay-dependent uncertainty is nonlinearly parameterized. By constructing a Lyapunov-Krasovskii-like composite energy function (CEF), we prove the boundedness of all closed-loop signals and the convergence of tracking error. A simulation example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the control algorithm proposed in this paper.     

一种鲁棒故障检测与分离的参数化方法

针对具有未知干扰输入的多变量线性系统,提出一种鲁棒故障检测与分离的完全参数化方法。利用最近的结果,基于Luenberger未知输入观测器矩阵的特征值及一组自由参数向量,分别给出了系统干扰解耦和故障分离的充要条件。通过适当选择满足一些约束的自由参数,仅使用单一观测器实现了鲁棒故障检测与分离设计。该方法提供了所有设计自由度。一个数值例子证明了该方法的有效性。     

Robust fast adaptive fault estimation and tolerant control for T-S fuzzy systems with interval time-varying delay

This paper studies the problem of fault estimation (FE) and the active fault tolerant control (FTC) for Takagi–Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy systems with interval time-varying delay and norm-bounded external disturbance. Based on the fast adaptive fault estimation (FAFE) algorithm, our attention focuses on designing an adaptive observer-based controller to guarantee the filtering error system to be asymptotically stable and satisfy theH_∞ performance index. By constructing a new Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional including the information of the lower and upper delay bounds, the sufficient delay-dependent conditions have been established to guarantee the existence of adaptive observer-based controller in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Compared with the constant delay and time-varying delay, the interval time-varying delay is the less conservative form. Furthermore, we make full use of the information of the delay and no terms are ignored when the stability of the system is analysed. In addition, the results for the systems with time-varying structured uncertainties are established. The results of the active FTC are showed in terms of LMIs. Finally, two examples are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Nonlinear disturbance observer-based control for multi-input multi-output nonlinear systems subject to mismatching condition

For a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear system, the existing disturbance observer-based control (DOBC) only provides solutions to those whose disturbance relative degree (DRD) is higher than or equal to its input relative degree. By designing a novel disturbance compensation gain matrix, a generalised nonlinear DOBC method is proposed in this article to solve the disturbance attenuation problem of the MIMO nonlinear system with arbitrary DRD. It is shown that the disturbances are able to be removed from the output channels by the proposed method with appropriately chosen control parameters. The property of nominal performance recovery, which is the major merit of the DOBCs, is retained with the proposed method. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are demonstrated by simulation studies of both the numerical and application examples.     

H∞ control via output feedback for linear systems with time-varying delays in state and control input

In this paper, an observer-based H_∞ controller for systems with time-varying delays in state and control input is proposed. Using the solution of proposed modified algebraic Riccati equation, we can construct a controller which depends on the maximum value of the time derivative of time-varying delay and guarantees a prescribed H_∞ norm bound of the closed-loop transfer matrix from the disturbance to the controlled output. A given example illustrates the availability of the proposed design method.