Dissipativity-based distributed fault diagnosis for plantwide chemical processes

Most modern chemical processes consist of a number of process units interconnected with mass and energy flows, often with energy integration and materials recycle loops. As such, faults (process faults, actuator faults, or sensor faults) often propagate to multiple process units (subsystems), causing significant difficulties in fault diagnosis for plantwide systems. In this paper, a general distributed fault diagnosis approach is proposed for plantwide chemical processes, which takes into account the interactions among process units. The distributed fault diagnostic observers are designed to be sensitive to the local faults (local sensitivity) and insensitive to faults in other process units (remote faults insensitivity) and disturbances. The above requirements are formulated as plantwide dissipativity conditions and the gains for the distributed estimators and residual generators are obtained offline by solving a set of linear matrix inequalities. A case study of heat exchanger network is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Distributed plantwide control based on differential dissipativity

Modern chemical plants are becoming very complex, often consisting of a number of nonlinear process units (subsystems) with strong interactions due to material recycle and energy integration. The operation setpoint may need to be adjusted from time to time based on the market demand. To address the aforementioned challenges, a plantwide distributed nonlinear control scheme based on differential dissipativity is proposed in this paper, which can ensure plantwide incremental exponential stability and achieve bounded incremental L₂ gain performance. As a non‐unique property, the differential dissipativity of individual subsystem is shaped by a setpoint‐independent control structure – differential state feedback control. The dissipativity properties of subsystems and individual controllers are determined simultaneously as a large‐scale feasibility problem to ensure the plantwide stability and performance. It is converted into an LMI condition for plantwide supply rate planning and small‐scale sum‐of‐squares programming problems for individual subsystem dissipativity shaping, by using the alternating direction method of multipliers method. The proposed approach is illustrated using a chemical reactor network with a recycle stream. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A model structure-driven hierarchical decentralized stabilizing control structure for process networks

Based on the structure of process models a hierarchically structured state-space model has been proposed for process networks with controlled mass convection and constant physico-chemical properties. Using the theory of cascade-connected nonlinear systems and the properties of Metzler and Hurwitz matrices it is shown that process systems with controlled mass convection and without sources or with stabilizing linear source terms are globally asymptotically stable. The hierarchically structured model gives rise to a distributed controller structure that is in agreement with the traditional hierarchical process control system structure where local controllers are used for mass inventory control and coordinating controllers are used for optimizing the system dynamics. The proposed distributed controller is illustrated on a simple non-isotherm jacketed chemical reactor.     

A self-interested distributed economic model predictive control approach to battery energy storage networks

In this work, a dissipativity based distributed economic model predictive control (DEMPC) approach is developed for the operation of battery energy storage (BES) networks in residential microgrids. With the presence of a microgrid power market (MPM), control of the BES systems is formulated as a self-interested distributed control problem, as individual DEMPC controllers minimize their local economic cost functions based on the price prediction of MPM. Due to the intermittent nature of photovoltaic (PV) power generations and load demands, the DEMPC without proper coordination or constraints may lead to excessive energy trading and price oscillations in MPM. To solve this problem, dissipativity theory with dynamic supply rates is adopted in this paper to deal with the interactions between individual users and the MPM. The microgrid-wide performance requirement of attenuation of the net power fluctuations with respect to time-varying PV generation and demands, is converted into the dissipative trajectory constraints imposed on individual DEMPC controllers. The proposed approach is scalable as it does not require online iterative optimizations across the controller network. A case study is presented to illustrate the proposed method.     

Iterative inversion of neural networks and its application toadaptive control

An iterative constrained inversion technique is used to find the control inputs to the plant. That is, rather than training a controller network and placing this network directly in the feedback or feedforward paths, the forward model of the plant is learned, and iterative inversion is performed on line to generate control commands. The control approach allows the controllers to respond online to changes in the plant dynamics. This approach also attempts to avoid the difficulty of analysis introduced by most current neural network controllers, which place the highly nonlinear neural network directly in the feedback path. A neural network-based model reference adaptive controller is also proposed for systems having significant dynamics between the control inputs and the observed (or desired) outputs and is demonstrated on a simple linear control system. These results are interpreted in terms of the need for a dither signal for on-line identification of dynamic systems.     

Finite-dimensional approximation and control of non-linear parabolic PDE systems

This article proposes a rigorous and practical methodology for the derivation of accurate finite-dimensional approximations and the synthesis of non-linear output feedback controllers for non-linear parabolic PDE systems for which the manipulated inputs, the controlled and measured outputs are distributed in space. The method consists of three steps: first, the Karhunen-Loeve expansion is used to derive empirical eigenfunctions of the non-linear parabolic PDE system, then the empirical eigenfunctions are used as basis functions within a Galerkin's and approximate inertial manifold model reduction framework to derive low-order ODE systems that accurately describe the dominant dynamics of the PDE system, and finally, these ODE systems are used for the synthesis of non-linear output feedback controllers that guarantee stability and enforce output tracking in the closed-loop system. The proposed method is used to perform model reduction and synthesize a non-linear dynamic output feedback controller for a rapid thermal chemical vapour deposition process. The controller uses measurements of wafer temperature at five locations to manipulate the power of the top lamps in order to achieve spatially uniform temperature, and thus, uniform deposition of the thin film on the wafer over the entire process cycle. The performance of the non-linear controller is successfully tested through simulations and is shown to be superior to the one of a linear controller.     

Closing the gap between planning and control: A multiscale MPC cascade approach

A one-to-many, multiscale model predictive control (MPC) cascade is proposed for closing the gap between production planning and process control. The gap originates from the fact that planning and control use models at different scales, and the gap has existed since the first planning tool was deployed. Multiscaleness has been at the core of the challenge to coordinating heterogeneous solution layers, and there has been a lack of systematic treatment for multiscaleness in a control system. The proposed MPC cascade is devised as a plantwide master MPC controller cascading on top of multiple (n) slave MPC controllers.¹ The master can use a coarse-scale, single-period planning model as the gain matrix of its dynamic model, and it then can control the same set of variables that are only monitored by the planning tool. Each slave controller, using a fine-scale model, performs two functions: (1) model predictive control for a process unit, and (2) computation of proxy limits that represent the current constraints inside the slave. The master's economic optimizer amends the single-period planning optimization in real time with the slave's proxy limits, and the embedded planning model is thus reconciled with the MPC models for process units in the sense that the master's optimal solution now honors the slave's constraints. With this new approach, the proposed MPC cascade becomes the plantwide closed-loop control system that performs the reconciled planning optimization in its master controller and carries out the just-in-time production plan through its slave controllers.     

Distributed model predictive control over network information exchange for large-scale systems

A class of large scale systems, which is naturally divided into many smaller interacting subsystems, are usually controlled by a distributed or decentralized control framework. In this paper, a novel distributed model predictive control (MPC) is proposed for improving the performance of entire system. In which each subsystem is controlled by a local MPC and these controllers exchange a reduced set of information with each other by network. The optimization index of each local MPC considers not only the performance of the corresponding subsystem but also that of its neighbours. The proposed architecture guarantees satisfactory performance under strong interactions among subsystems. A stability analysis is presented for the unconstrained distributed MPC and the provided stability results can be employed for tuning the controller. Experiment of the application to accelerated cooling process in a test rig is provided for validating the efficiency of the proposed method.     

Distributed LQR control for discrete-time homogeneous systems

This paper investigates the distributed linear quadratic regulation (LQR) controller design method for discrete-time homogeneous scalar systems. Based on the optimal centralised control theory, the existence condition for distributed optimal controller is firstly proposed. It shows that the globally optimal distributed controller is dependent on the structure of the penalty matrix. Such results can be used in consensus problems and used to find under which communication topology (may not be an all-to-all form) the optimal distributed controller exists. When the proposed condition cannot hold, a suboptimal design method with the aid of the decomposition of discrete algebraic Riccati equations and robustness of local controllers is proposed. The computation complexity and communication load for each subsystem are only dependent on the number of its neighbours.     

Implications of dissipativity,inverse optimal control,and stability margins for nonlinear stochastic feedback regulators

In this paper, we derive stability margins for optimal and inverse optimal stochastic feedback regulators. Specifically, gain, sector, and disk margin guarantees are obtained for nonlinear stochastic dynamical systems controlled by nonlinear optimal and inverse optimal Hamilton‐Jacobi‐Bellman controllers that minimize a nonlinear‐nonquadratic performance criterion with cross‐weighting terms. Furthermore, using the newly developed notion of stochastic dissipativity, we derive a return difference inequality to provide connections between stochastic dissipativity and optimality of nonlinear controllers for stochastic dynamical systems. In particular, using extended Kalman‐Yakubovich‐Popov conditions characterizing stochastic dissipativity, we show that our optimal feedback control law satisfies a return difference inequality predicated on the infinitesimal generator of a controlled Markov diffusion process if and only if the controller is stochastically dissipative with respect to a specific quadratic supply rate.     

Stable adaptive neurocontrol for nonlinear discrete-time systems

This paper presents a novel approach in designing neural network based adaptive controllers for a class of nonlinear discrete-time systems. This type of controllers has its simplicity in parallelism to linear generalized minimum variance (GMV) controller design and efficiency to deal with complex nonlinear dynamics. A recurrent neural network is introduced as a bridge to compensation simplify controller design procedure and efficiently to deal with nonlinearity. The network weight adaptation law is derived from Lyapunov stability analysis and the connection between convergence of the network weight and the reconstruction error of the network is established. A theorem is presented for the conditions of the stability of the closed-loop systems. Two simulation examples are provided to demonstrate the efficiency of the approach.     

Distributed robust control of linear multi-agent systems with parameter uncertainties

This article considers the distributed robust control problems of uncertain linear multi-agent systems with undirected communication topologies. It is assumed that the agents have identical nominal dynamics while subject to different norm-bounded parameter uncertainties, leading to weakly heterogeneous multi-agent systems. Distributed controllers are designed for both continuous- and discrete-time multi-agent systems, based on the relative states of neighbouring agents and a subset of absolute states of the agents. It is shown for both the continuous- and discrete-time cases that the distributed robust control problems under such controllers in the sense of quadratic stability are equivalent to the H _∞ control problems of a set of decoupled linear systems having the same dimensions as a single agent. A two-step algorithm is presented to construct the distributed controller for the continuous-time case, which does not involve any conservatism and meanwhile decouples the feedback gain design from the communication topology. Furthermore, a sufficient existence condition in terms of linear matrix inequalities is derived for the distributed discrete-time controller. Finally, the distributed robust H _∞ control problems of uncertain linear multi-agent systems subject to external disturbances are discussed.     

An optimal control based approach to designing plantwide control system architectures

An approach to designing decentralized plantwide control system architectures is presented. The approach is based on splitting the optimal controller gain matrix that results from solving an output optimal control problem into feedback and feedforward parts. These two parts are then used to design and evaluate decentralized control systems. Results for the application of the methodology to a realistic, 4 by 4 reactor with recycle process are given. For this system, the optimal control based approach suggests feedback pairings that are significantly different than those suggested by the steady state RGA. The approach presented can give an indication if MPC is preferred over a decentralized approach to plantwide control. Comparison of the results produced by the best decentralized plantwide system and a model predictive control system are presented.     

Distributed adaptive output feedback tracking control for a class of uncertain nonlinear multi-agent systems

This paper addresses the distributed output feedback tracking control problem for multi-agent systems with higher order nonlinear non-strict-feedback dynamics and directed communication graphs. The existing works usually design a distributed consensus controller using all the states of each agent, which are often immeasurable, especially in nonlinear systems. In this paper, based only on the relative output between itself and its neighbours, a distributed adaptive consensus control law is proposed for each agent using the backstepping technique and approximation technique of Fourier series (FS) to solve the output feedback tracking control problem of multi-agent systems. The FS structure is taken not only for tracking the unknown nonlinear dynamics but also the unknown derivatives of virtual controllers in the controller design procedure, which can therefore prevent virtual controllers from containing uncertain terms. The projection algorithm is applied to ensure that the estimated parameters remain in some known bounded sets. Lyapunov stability analysis shows that the proposed control law can guarantee that the output of each agent synchronises to the leader with bounded residual errors and that all the signals in the closed-loop system are uniformly ultimately bounded. Simulation results have verified the performance and feasibility of the proposed distributed adaptive control strategy.     

多智能体时滞网络的加权平均一致性

提出了线性和非线性分布式协调控制器,使多智能体系统取得加权平均一致性.对于线性控制器,考虑网络存在通信时间延迟的情形,给出了能容忍的最大固定时滞的一个紧凑上界.考虑网络结点控制输入的有界约束,给出了一类非线性分布式控制器的收敛性分析.结果说明,网络的连通性是系统取得一致性的关键.最后对时滞网络的情形给出了仿真示例.     

Adaptive hierarchical tuning of fuzzy controllers

Fuzzy controller design includes both linear and non-linear dynamic analysis. The knowledge base parameters associated within the fuzzy rule base influence the non-linear control dynamics while the linear parameters associated within the fuzzy output signal influence the overall control dynamics. For distinct identification of tuning levels, an equivalent linear controller output and a normalized non-linear controller output are defined. A linear proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller analogy is used for determining the linear tuning parameters. Non-linear tuning is derived from the locally defined control properties in the non-linear fuzzy output. The non-linearity in the fuzzy output is then represented in a graphical form for achieving the necessary non-linear tuning. Three different tuning strategies are evaluated. The first strategy uses a genetic algorithm to simultaneously tune both linear and non-linear parameters. In the second strategy the non-linear parameters are initially selected on the basis of some desired non-linear control characteristics and the linear tuning is then performed using a trial and error approach. In the third method the linear tuning is initially performed off-line using an existing linear PID law and an adaptive non-linear tuning is then performed online in a hierarchical fashion. The control performance of each design is compared against its corresponding linear PID system. The controllers based on the first two design methods show superior performance when they are implemented on the estimated process system. However, in the presence of process uncertainties and external disturbances these controllers fail to perform any better than linear controllers. In the hierarchical control architecture, the non-linear fuzzy control method adapts to process uncertainties and disturbances to produce superior performance.     

Distributed formation‐containment control with Euler‐Lagrange systems subject to input saturation and communication delays

This paper is concerned with the problem of formation‐containment on networked systems, with interconnected systems modeled by the Euler‐Lagrange equation with bounded inputs and time‐varying delays on the communication channels. The main results are the design of control algorithms and sufficient conditions to ensure the convergence of the network. The control algorithms are designed as distributed dynamic controllers, in such a way that the number of neighbors of each agent is decoupled from the bound of the control inputs. That is, in the proposed approach the amplitude of the input signal does not directly increase with the number of neighbors of each agent. The proposed sufficient conditions for the asymptotic convergence follow from the Lyapunov‐Krasovskii theory and are formulated in the linear matrix inequalities framework. The conditions rely only on the upper bound of delays and on a subset of the controller parameters, but they do not depend on the model of each agent, which makes it suitable for networks with agents governed by distinct dynamics. In order to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method we present numerical examples and compare with similar approaches existing in the literature.     

Distributed control of spatially invariant systems

We consider distributed parameter systems where the underlying dynamics are spatially invariant, and where the controls and measurements are spatially distributed. These systems arise in many applications such as the control of vehicular platoons, flow control, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), smart structures, and systems described by partial differential equations with constant coefficients and distributed controls and measurements. For fully actuated distributed control problems involving quadratic criteria such as linear quadratic regulator (LQR), H₂ and H_∞, optimal controllers can be obtained by solving a parameterized family of standard finite-dimensional problems. We show that optimal controllers have an inherent degree of decentralization, and this provides a practical distributed controller architecture. We also prove a general result that applies to partially distributed control and a variety of performance criteria, stating that optimal controllers inherit the spatial invariance structure of the plant. Connections of this work to that on systems over rings, and systems with dynamical symmetries are discussed     

一种神经网络自适应PID控制器

应用人工神经网络的原理,设计了一种神经网络的职能PID控制器。仿真结果表明,此PID控制器对非线性时不变系统有比传统的PID好的控制效果。该控制器将神经网络和PID控制规律融为一体,既具有常规PID控制器结构简单、参数物理意义明确之优点,又具有神经网络自学习、自适应之能力,控制效果明显提高。     

Symbolic control of linear systems based on symbolic subsystems

This paper describes an approach to the control of continuous systems through the use of symbolic models describing the system behavior only at a finite number of points in the state space. These symbolic models can be seen as abstract representations of the continuous dynamics enabling the use of algorithmic controller design methods. We identify a class of linear control systems for which the loss of information incurred by working with symbolic subsystems can be compensated by feedback. We also show how to transform symbolic controllers designed for a symbolic subsystem into controllers for the original system. The resulting controllers combine symbolic controller dynamics with continuous feedback control laws and can thus be seen as hybrid systems. Furthermore, if the symbolic controller already accounts for software/hardware requirements, the hybrid controller is guaranteed to enforce the desired specifications by construction thereby reducing the need for formal verification.