BIBO stability and stabilization of networked control systems with short time‐varying delays

This paper presents a robust control approach to solve the stability and stabilization problems for networked control systems (NCSs) with short time‐varying delays. A new discrete‐time linear uncertain system model is proposed to describe the NCS, and the uncertainty of the network‐induced delay is transformed into the uncertainty of the system matrix. Based on the obtained uncertain system model, a sufficient BIBO stability condition for the closed‐loop NCS is derived by applying the small gain theorem. The obtained stability condition establishes a quantitative relation between the BIBO stability of the closed‐loop NCS and two delay parameters, namely, the delay upper bound and the delay variation range bound. Moreover, design procedures for the state feedback stabilizing controllers are also presented. An illustrative example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust H∞ control of phase‐locked loops with polytopic type uncertainties

A robust H_∞ control method is applied in the design of loop filters for phase‐locked loop (PLL) carrier phase tracking. The proposed method successfully copes with large S‐curve slope uncertainty and with a significant decision delay in the closed loop that may stem from the decoder and/or the equalizer there. The design problem is transformed into a state‐feedback control problem where phase and gain margins should be guaranteed in spite of the uncertainty. Of all the loop filters that achieve the required margins the one that minimizes an upper bound on the effect of the phase and the measurement noise signals is derived. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mixed H∞/H2 design of digital phase‐locked loops with polytopic‐type uncertainties

A robust H_∞ control method is applied to the design of loop filters for digital phase locked loop carrier phase tracking. The proposed method successfully copes with large S‐curve slope uncertainty and with a significant decision delay in the closed‐loop that may stem from the decoder and/or the equalizer there. The design problem is transformed into a state‐feedback control problem where phase and gain‐margins should be guaranteed in spite of the uncertainty. Of all the loop filters that achieve the required margins the one that minimizes an upper‐bound on the effect of the phase and the measurement noise signals is derived. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An iterative algorithm for maximizing robust performance in loop‐shaping design

In this paper, an algorithm that gives the best achievable performance bound on a given control problem is proposed using the loop‐shaping design framework. In view of standard design requirements, the robust performance is maximized at low and high frequencies while keeping the robust stability margin above a specified level, and the robust stability margin is directly improved at mid frequencies (around crossover). The proposed frequency‐dependent optimization problem is cast in an LMI framework. The resulting solution algorithm simultaneously synthesizes loop‐shaping weights and a stabilizing controller that achieve the maximum performance for a given level of robust stability margin corresponding to sufficient gain and phase margins of the closed‐loop system. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analytical formulation to compute QFT bounds: The envelope method

This paper describes an analytical formulation to compute quantitative feedback theory (QFT) bounds in one‐degree‐of‐freedom feedback control problems. The new approach is based on envelope curves and shows that a QFT control specification can be expressed as a family of circumferences. Then, the controller bound is defined by the envelope curve of this family and can be obtained as an analytical function. This offers the possibility of studying the QFT bounds in an analytical way with several useful properties. Gridding methods are avoided, resulting in a lower computational effort procedure. The new formulation improves the accuracy of previous methods and allows the designer to calculate multivalued bounds. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Non‐diagonal MIMO QFT controller design reformulation

This paper presents a reformulation of the full‐matrix quantitative feedback theory (QFT) robust control methodology for multiple‐input–multiple‐output (MIMO) plants with uncertainty. The new methodology includes a generalization of previous non‐diagonal MIMO QFT techniques; avoiding former hypotheses of diagonal dominance; simplifying the calculations for the off‐diagonal elements, and then the method itself; reformulating the classical matrix definition of MIMO specifications by designing a new set of loop‐by‐loop QFT bounds on the Nichols Chart, which establish necessary and sufficient conditions; giving explicit expressions to share the load among the loops of the MIMO system to achieve the matrix specifications; and all for stability, reference tracking, disturbance rejection at plant input and output, and noise attenuation problems. The new methodology is applied to the design of a MIMO controller for a spacecraft flying in formation in a low Earth orbit. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Nyquist stability criterion in the Nichols chart

The Nyquist stability criterion is a widely used technique for determining in the complex s‐plane the stability of a dynamical system with feedback. This paper presents a practical and comprehensive method to compute the Nyquist stability criterion directly in the Nichols (magnitude/phase) chart. The proposed method also gives guidelines to design controllers to stabilize unstable plants when dealing with frequency domain techniques like the quantitative feedback theory robust control. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Iterative ‐conic controller synthesis

This paper proposes a method to synthesize controllers that minimize an upper bound on the closed‐loop ‐norm while imposing desired controller conic bounds. An initial conic controller is synthesized and iteratively improved. Conic sectors can be used to characterize a variety of input‐output properties, such as gain, phase, and minimum gain. If such plant properties hold robustly to uncertainty present, then closed‐loop stability can be ensured robustly via the Conic Sector Theorem by imposing desired controller conic bounds. Consequently, this paper provides a versatile optimal and robust controller synthesis method. Moreover, it relies only on the solution of convex optimization problems subject to linear matrix inequality constraints, making it readily implementable.     

Arbitrarily fast and robust tracking by feedback

The output of a singe-input-single-output linear feedback system with more than one pole in excess over the zeros in the loop transmission cannot track arbitrarily fast its input (by the root locus). In this work we extend the linear feedback so that some of the open loop poles may depend on the open loop gain; we call this new class quasi-linear feedback systems. We then derive time domain, pole-zero, and frequency domain conditions which ensure arbitrarily fast and robust tracking by quasi-linear feedback, for an arbitrary number of poles in excess over the zeros. We prove that in a particular case these conditions are equivalent, and that the boundedness in frequency of the closed loop transfer function is no longer necessary for achieving arbitrarily fast tracking. The robustness is to external disturbances and initial conditions, and the open loop has to be minimum phase. Some examples are presented which illustrate these results. They also show that this good performance can be obtained with a reduced control effort, and that quasi-linear feedback can alleviate the limitation on performance of non-minimum phase open loops.     

时滞不确定采样控制系统的鲁棒稳定性

本文给出了一种可定量分析采样控制系统的时滞鲁棒稳定性的方法.因为采样系统的对象是连续时间的,所以对象中的时滞也应该是按连续时间来处理.文中指出,一个整数倍时滞是稳定的采样系统,可能会因为有并不很大的连续时间时滞而失稳.定义了一个新的变量w(t),用来描述这个不确定连续时间时滞带来的动特性.将w(t)的反馈回路分成与时滞无关和有关的两个部分,并提出了一种用频率响应来确定是否存在由不确定时滞引起的周期解的方法.用修正z-变换法和仿真验证了这个由图解解析所求得的解.本方法既可用于采样系统,也可用于一般的连续时间系统.     

A new view of anti‐windup design for uncertain linear systems in the frequency domain

This paper presents a new perspective on the stability problem for uncertain LTI feedback systems with actuator input amplitude saturation. The solution is obtained using the quantitative feedback theory and a 3 DoF non‐interfering control structure. Describing function (DF) analysis is used as a criterion for closed loop stability and limit cycle avoidance, but the circle or Popov criteria could also be employed. The novelty is the combination of a controller parameterization from the literature and describing function‐based limit cycle avoidance with margins for uncertain plants. Two examples are given. The first is a benchmark problem and a comparison is made with other proposed solutions. The second is an example that was implemented and tested on an X‐Y linear stage used for nano‐positioning applications. Design and implementation considerations are given. An example is given on how the method can be extended to amplitude and rate saturation with the help of the generalized describing function, and a novel anti‐windup compensation structure inspired by previous contributions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stability analysis of time‐delay systems via Bessel inequality: A quadratic separation approach

In this paper, new sufficient stability conditions for the asymptotic stability of time‐delay systems are presented using the quadratic separation approach. The time‐delay system is modeled as an interconnected closed‐loop system involving a linear transformation and delay‐dependent functions, representing the uncertainties brought by the delay. Those complex‐valued functions are then embedded into adequate norm‐bounded uncertainties, which lead to several stability results. The novelty of this approach relies on the introduction of new dedicated functions that are built in accordance to the Bessel inequality. They allow us to model the system as an uncertain feedback system and to control the accuracy of the inequality. Then, a sequence of linear matrix inequality conditions is proposed, which tends to the analytical bounds for both delay‐dependent stability and delay range stability, at least on examples.     

Delay‐dependent Stability and Static Output Feedback Control of 2‐D Discrete Systems with Interval Time‐varying Delays

This paper is concerned with the problems of delay‐dependent stability and static output feedback (SOF) control of two‐dimensional (2‐D) discrete systems with interval time‐varying delays, which are described by the Fornasini‐Marchesini (FM) second model. The upper and lower bounds of delays are considered. Applying a new method of estimating the upper bound on the difference of Lyapunov function that does not ignore any terms, a new delay‐dependent stability criteria based on linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) is derived. Then, given the lower bounds of time‐varying delays, the maximum upper bounds in the above LMIs are obtained through computing a convex optimization problem. Based on the stability criteria, the SOF control problem is formulated in terms of a bilinear matrix inequality (BMI). With the use of the slack variable technique, a sufficient LMI condition is proposed for the BMI. Moreover, the SOF gain can be solved by LMIs. Numerical examples show the effectiveness and advantages of our results.     

Multi-input/single-output computer-aided control design using the quantitative feedback theory

The quantitative feedback theory is an engineering design technique of uncertain feedback systems having robust stability and robust performance specifications. The crux of the quantitative feedback theory is a transformation of robust stability and robust performance specifications into domains in the complex plane, referred to as bounds, where a nominal loop transmission should lie within. To date, a quantitative feedback theory design is being carried out using manual (i.e. graphical) procedures or search algorithms. This paper shows that there exists a formal map from the uncertain plant and each closed-loop specification to these bounds. In particular, it is shown that each map has a closed form consisting of a quadratic inequality. These maps greatly simplify the computational aspects of the quantitative feedback theory in design of single-loop feedback systems. Based on this new development, a simple-to-implement, efficient computer algorithm is outlined.     

Robust controller synthesis for systems with input nonlinearities: a trade-off between gain variation and parametric uncertainty

A feedback control-system design problem involving input nonlinearities and structured plant parameter uncertainities is considered. Multivariable absolute stability theory is merged with the guaranteed cost control approach to robust stability and performance to obtain a theory of full- and reduced-order robust control design that accounts for input time-varying sector bounded nonlinearities. The principal result is a sufficient condition for characterizing dynamic controllers of a fixed dimension which are guaranteed to provide robust stability for plant parametric variations and absolute stabilization for input nonlinearities. The proposed framework provides a systematic design trade-off between classical robustness guarantees (i.e., gain and phase margins) versus parametric robustness. Furthermore, the framework is directly applicable to uncertain systems with saturating controls and provides fixed-order dynamic output feedback controllers with guaranteed domains of attraction. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Nyquist robust sensitivity margin for uncertain closed‐loop systems

The Nyquist robust sensitivity margin is proposed as a new scalar indicator of robust stability that also provides a meaningful quantitative assessment of the worst sensitivity realized by the uncertain closed loop. After formulating and discussing in detail the underlying optimization problem required for the calculation of the margin, the approach is applied to the characterization of the robust stability of a closed‐loop featuring a linear system with an affine uncertainty structure and a parametric uncertainty set described by a real rectangular polytope. The capabilities of the methodology are illustrated through examples, which include an approach for quantifying alternative robustness margins, such as a parametric stability margin. The computational algorithm is systematic and can be carried out with high numerical precision. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A multiloop generalization of the circle criterion for stability margin analysis

In order to provide a theoretical tool well suited for use in characterizing the stability margins (e.g., gain and phase margins) of multiloop feedback systems, multiloop input-output stability results generalizing the circle stability criterion are considered. Generalized conic sectors with "centers" and "radii" determined by linear dynamical operators are employed to enable an engineer to specify the stability margins which he desires as a frequency-dependent convex set of modeling errors-including nonlinearities, gain variations, and phase variations-which the system must be able to tolerate in each feedback loop without instability. The resulting stability criterion gives sufficient conditions for closed-loop stability in the presence of such frequency-dependent modeling errors, even when the modeling errors occur simultaneously in all loops; so, for example, stability is assured as loop gains and phases vary throughout a "set of nonzero measure" whose boundaries are frequency-dependent. The stability conditions yield an easily interpreted scalar measure of the amount by which a muitiloop system exceeds, or falls short of, its stability margin specifications.     

ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF FEEDBACK CONTROL SYSTEMS WITH TRACKING ERRORS SQUARE

In this study, a command tracking error square control scheme is first proposed for analysis and design of feedback control systems. One of the tracking errors is low‐pass filtered and used in the feedback loop for gain adaptation; the other is used in the forward loop for command tracking control. The overall systems are nonlinear feedback systems, and can be reconfigured to an automatic gain control (AGC) loop with command tracking error input. The stability and robustness of the controlled systems are verified by time response, frequency response, and large parameter variation testing with a simple illustrating example and are finally applied to a complicated electro‐hydraulic velocity servo system with large load disturbance.     

A high‐performance robust control method based on the gain and phase information of uncertainty

The well‐known small‐gain and passivity approaches to robust control only make use of either the gain or the phase information of uncertainty in system design. This results in a limitation on the achievable control bandwidth in practical applications. To relax the limitations associated with these approaches, we explore the possibility of utilizing both the gain and the phase information of uncertainty in robust control design. In this paper, the modeling of uncertainty accounting for both gain and phase is discussed first. Then conditions for robust stability and robust performance (sensitivity and bandwidth) are derived respectively. These robustness conditions are described as phase or gain constraints on the nominal system in different frequency bands. Further, it is revealed, both theoretically and via a hard disk drive benchmark, that a much higher robust performance can be achieved by using the gain and phase information of uncertainty. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.