Distributed ESO based cooperative tracking control for high-order nonlinear multiagent systems with lumped disturbance and application in multi flight simulators systems

Based on extended state observer, a novel and practical design method is developed to solve the distributed cooperative tracking problem of higher-order nonlinear multiagent systems with lumped disturbance in a fixed communication topology directed graph. The proposed method is designed to guarantee all the follower nodes ultimately and uniformly converge to the leader node with bounded residual errors. The leader node, modeled as a higher-order non-autonomous nonlinear system, acts as a command generator giving commands only to a small portion of the networked follower nodes. Extended state observer is used to estimate the local states and lumped disturbance of each follower node. Moreover, each distributed controller can work independently only requiring the relative states and/or the estimated relative states information between itself and its neighbors. Finally an engineering application of multi flight simulators systems is demonstrated to test and verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

Finite-time fault tolerant attitude stabilization control for rigid spacecraft

A sliding mode based finite-time control scheme is presented to address the problem of attitude stabilization for rigid spacecraft in the presence of actuator fault and external disturbances. More specifically, a nonlinear observer is first proposed to reconstruct the amplitude of actuator faults and external disturbances. It is proved that precise reconstruction with zero observer error is achieved in finite time. Then, together with the system states, the reconstructed information is used to synthesize a nonsingular terminal sliding mode attitude controller. The attitude and the angular velocity are asymptotically governed to zero with finite-time convergence. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.     

Attitude output feedback control for rigid spacecraft with finite-time convergence

The main problem addressed is the quaternion-based attitude stabilization control of rigid spacecraft without angular velocity measurements in the presence of external disturbances and reaction wheel friction as well. As a stepping stone, an angular velocity observer is proposed for the attitude control of a rigid body in the absence of angular velocity measurements. The observer design ensures finite-time convergence of angular velocity state estimation errors irrespective of the control torque or the initial attitude state of the spacecraft. Then, a novel finite-time control law is employed as the controller in which the estimate of the angular velocity is used directly. It is then shown that the observer and the controlled system form a cascaded structure, which allows the application of the finite-time stability theory of cascaded systems to prove the finite-time stability of the closed-loop system. A rigorous analysis of the proposed formulation is provided and numerical simulation studies are presented to help illustrate the effectiveness of the angular-velocity observer for rigid spacecraft attitude control.     

Relative position finite-time coordinated tracking control of spacecraft formation without velocity measurements

This paper investigates finite-time relative position coordinated tracking problem by output feedback for spacecraft formation flying without velocity measurement. By employing homogeneous system theory, a finite-time relative position coordinated tracking controller by state feedback is firstly developed, where the desired time-varying trajectory given in advance can be tracked by the formation. Then, to address the problem of lack of velocity measurements, a finite-time output feedback controller is proposed by involving a novel filter to recover unknown velocity information in a finite time. Rigorous proof shows that the proposed control law ensures global stability and guarantees the position of spacecraft formation to track a time-varying reference in finite time. Finally, simulation results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed controller.     

Distributed coordinated attitude tracking control for spacecraft formation with communication delays

This paper investigates the distributed coordinated attitude tracking control problem for spacecraft formation with time-varying communication delays under the condition that the dynamic leader spacecraft is a neighbor of only a subset of follower spacecrafts. We consider two cases for the leader spacecraft: i) the attitude derivative is constant, and ii) the attitude derivative is time-varying. In the first case, a distributed estimator is proposed for each follower spacecraft by using its neighbors’ information with communication delays. In the second case, to express the dynamic leader’s attitude, an improved distributed observer is developed to estimate the leader’s information. Based on the estimated values, adaptive coordinated attitude tracking control laws are designed to compensate for parametric uncertainties and unknown disturbances. By employing the Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional approach, the attitude tracking errors and estimation errors are proven to converge to zero asymptotically. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of theoretical results.     

A genuine nonlinear approach for controller design of a boiler-turbine system

This paper proposes a genuine nonlinear approach for controller design of a drum-type boiler-turbine system. Based on a second order nonlinear model, a finite-time convergent controller is first designed to drive the states to their setpoints in a finite time. In the case when the state variables are unmeasurable, the system will be regulated using a constant controller or an output feedback controller. An adaptive controller is also designed to stabilize the system since the model parameters may vary under different operating points. The novelty of the proposed controller design approach lies in fully utilizing the system nonlinearities instead of linearizing or canceling them. In addition, the newly developed techniques for finite-time convergent controller are used to guarantee fast convergence of the system. Simulations are conducted under different cases and the results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed controllers.     

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.     

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.     

Finite-time sliding mode controller for perturbed second-order systems

This paper presents a novel finite-time sliding mode controller applied to perturbed second order systems. The proposed scheme employs a disturbance observer that can identify growing in time disturbances. Then, the observer is combined with a sliding mode controller to achieve finite-time stabilization of the second-order system. The convergence of the observer as well as the finite-time stability of the closed-loop system is theoretically demonstrated. Besides, it is also shown that the finite-time convergence properties of a given controller can be enhanced when using a compensation term based on the disturbance observer. The proposed controller is compared with a twisting algorithm and a finite-time sliding mode controller with disturbance estimation. Also, a conventional proportional integral derivative (PID) controller is combined with the proposed disturbance observer in a trajectory tracking task. Numerical simulations indicate that the proposed controller attains finite-time stabilization of the second order system by requiring a less amount of power than that demanded by the other control schemes and without being affected by the peaking phenomenon. Besides, the performance of the PID technique is enhanced by applying the proposed control methodology.     

Finite-time stabilization for a class of nonholonomic feedforward systems subject to inputs saturation

This paper studies the problem of finite-time stabilization by state feedback for a class of uncertain nonholonomic systems in feedforward-like form subject to inputs saturation. Under the weaker homogeneous condition on systems growth, a saturated finite-time control scheme is developed by exploiting the adding a power integrator method, the homogeneous domination approach and the nested saturation technique. Together with a novel switching control strategy, the designed saturated controller guarantees that the states of closed-loop system are regulated to zero in a finite time without violation of the constraint. As an application of the proposed theoretical results, the problem of saturated finite-time control for vertical wheel on rotating table is solved. Simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Dual-quaternion based fault-tolerant control for spacecraft formation flying with finite-time convergence

Study results of developing control system for spacecraft formation proximity operations between a target and a chaser are presented. In particular, a coupled model using dual quaternion is employed to describe the proximity problem of spacecraft formation, and a nonlinear adaptive fault-tolerant feedback control law is developed to enable the chaser spacecraft to track the position and attitude of the target even though its actuator occurs fault. Multiple-task capability of the proposed control system is further demonstrated in the presence of disturbances and parametric uncertainties as well. In addition, the practical finite-time stability feature of the closed-loop system is guaranteed theoretically under the designed control law. Numerical simulation of the proposed method is presented to demonstrate the advantages with respect to interference suppression, fast tracking, fault tolerant and practical finite-time stability.     

Neural network disturbance observer-based distributed finite-time formation tracking control for multiple unmanned helicopters

The distributed finite-time formation tracking control problem for multiple unmanned helicopters is investigated in this paper. The control object is to maintain the positions of follower helicopters in formation with external interferences. The helicopter model is divided into a second order outer-loop subsystem and a second order inner-loop subsystem based on multiple-time scale features. Using radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) technique, we first propose a novel finite-time multivariable neural network disturbance observer (FMNNDO) to estimate the external disturbance and model uncertainty, where the neural network (NN) approximation errors can be dynamically compensated by adaptive law. Next, based on FMNNDO, a distributed finite-time formation tracking controller and a finite-time attitude tracking controller are designed using the nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode (NFTSM) method. In order to estimate the second derivative of the virtual desired attitude signal, a novel finite-time sliding mode integral filter is designed. Finally, Lyapunov analysis and multiple-time scale principle ensure the realization of control goal in finite-time. The effectiveness of the proposed FMNNDO and controllers are then verified by numerical simulations.     

Finite-time resilient decentralized control for interconnected impulsive switched systems with neutral delay

This paper is concerned with the problem of finite-time control for a class of interconnected impulsive switched systems with neutral delay in which the time-varying delay appears in both the state and the state derivative. The concepts of finite-time boundedness and finite-time stability are respectively extended to interconnected impulsive switched systems with neutral delay for the first time. By applying the average dwell time method, sufficient conditions are first derived to cope with the problem of finite-time boundedness and finite-time stability for interconnected impulsive switched systems with neutral delay. In addition, the purpose of finite-time resilient decentralized control is to construct a resilient decentralized state-feedback controller such that the closed-loop system is finite-time bounded and finite-time stable. All the conditions are formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities to ensure finite-time boundedness and finite-time stability of the given system. Finally, an example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Finite-time consensus of Markov jumping multi-agent systems with time-varying actuator faults and input saturation

This paper gives attention to the issue of finite-time leader-following consensus of nonlinear discrete-time multi-agent systems with Markov jump parameters. A robust fault-tolerant control protocol that takes the effect of time-varying actuator faults and actuator saturation into account is considered for the addressed system. The main purpose of the paper is to design a fault-tolerant controller such that the leader-following consensus of the addressed system is achieved over a prescribed finite-time interval. By using the Lyapunov functional approach, Abel’s lemma and some properties of Kronecker product, a sufficient condition for the existence of fault-tolerant state feedback controller for the addressed system is presented and an explicit parameterization of such a controller is obtained. Eventually, a numerical example along with its simulation results is exploited to reflect the applicability of the proposed design method, wherein the robust performance of controller is exhibited despite the presence of actuator saturation and time-varying actuator faults.     

Robust finite-time chaos synchronization of uncertain permanent magnet synchronous motors

In this paper, a robust finite-time chaos synchronization scheme is proposed for two uncertain third-order permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs). The whole synchronization error system is divided into two cascaded subsystems: a first-order subsystem and a second-order subsystem. For the first subsystem, we design a finite-time controller based on the finite-time Lyapunov stability theory. Then, according to the backstepping idea and the adding a power integrator technique, a second finite-time controller is constructed recursively for the second subsystem. No exogenous forces are required in the controllers design but only the direct-axis (d-axis) and the quadrature-axis (q-axis) stator voltages are used as manipulated variables. Comparative simulations are provided to show the effectiveness and superior performance of the proposed method.     

Adaptive fast sliding mode fault tolerant control integrated with disturbance observer for spacecraft attitude stabilization system

In this paper, the problem of fault-tolerant control (FTC) for spacecraft attitude stabilization system with actuator fault and mismatched disturbance is investigated. A novel fault tolerant control strategy based on adaptive fast terminal sliding mode control (AFTSMC) is proposed. Firstly, a novel composite observer is proposed to estimate the disturbance, actuator efficiency factor and partial states of the system. By introducing a sliding mode observer, the bias actuator fault is reconstructed. Subsequently, in accordance with the estimated information, a novel sliding mode fault tolerant controller is designed. The proposed control scheme contains two compensators and two adaptive parameters to attenuate the mismatched disturbance, to compensate actuator fault, and to guarantee fast convergence of the system. Furthermore, the reachability of sliding motion is proved. The simulation results for the spacecraft system illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Robust control for rotational inverted pendulums using output feedback sliding mode controller and disturbance observer

This paper presents a system modeling, controller design and implementation for a rotational inverted pendulum system (RIPS), which is an under-actuated system and has the problem of unattainable velocity state. Two control strategies are applied to theRIPS. One is a sliding mode control method using the parameterization of both the hyperplane and the compensator for output feedback. The other is the disturbance observer which estimates disturbance and some modeling errors of RIPS with less computational effort. Some simulations and various kinds of experiments are performed in order to verify that the proposed controller has the ability to control RIPS whose velocity is assumed to be unavailable. The results of the simulations and experiments show that the proposed control system has superior performance for disturbance rejection and regulation at certain initial conditions as well as the robustness to model uncertainties.     

Finite-time stabilization for a class of stochastic nonlinear systems via output feedback

This paper investigates the problem of global finite-time stabilization in probability for a class of stochastic nonlinear systems. The drift and diffusion terms satisfy lower-triangular or upper-triangular homogeneous growth conditions. By adding one power integrator technique, an output feedback controller is first designed for the nominal system without perturbing nonlinearities. Based on homogeneous domination approach and stochastic finite-time stability theorem, it is proved that the solution of the closed-loop system will converge to the origin in finite time and stay at the origin thereafter with probability one. Two simulation examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design procedure.     

Finite-time extended dissipative control for fuzzy systems with nonlinear perturbations via sampled-data and quantized controller

This paper investigates the problem of finite-time extended dissipative control for T–S fuzzy time-varying delay systems with nonlinear perturbations via sampled-data and quantized controller. The definition of finite-time bounded mixed extended dissipative of fuzzy systems is first proposed. Based on the constructed Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional(LKF) and Peng–Parks integral inequality, some sufficient conditions are obtained in the form of linear matrix inequalities(LMIs), which are less conservative than other papers. By combining the input delay approach and dynamic quantizer, the sampled-data and quantized controller is designed to guarantee that the T–S fuzzy system is finite-time bounded mixed extended dissipative. Finally, some numerical examples and practical examples are presented to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methods.