Robust nonlinear ship course‐keeping control by H∞ I/O linearization and μ‐synthesis

In this paper, the H_∞ input/output (I/O) linearization formulation is applied to design an inner‐loop nonlinear controller for a nonlinear ship course‐keeping control problem. Due to the ship motion dynamics are non‐minimum phase, it is impossible to use the ordinary feedback I/O linearization to resolve. Hence, the technique of H_∞ I/O linearization is proposed to obtain a nonlinear H_∞ controller such that the compensated nonlinear system approximates the linear reference model in I/O behaviour. Then a μ‐synthesis method is employed to design an outer‐loop robust controller to address tracking, regulation, and robustness issues. The time responses of the tracking signals for the closed‐loop system reveal that the overall robust nonlinear controller is able to provide robust stability and robust performance for the plant uncertainties and state measurement errors. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Approximate finite‐time control for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with dynamic compensation

In this work, a new robust nonlinear feedback control method with dynamic active compensation is proposed; the active control method has been applied to an integral series of finite‐time single‐input single‐output nonlinear system with uncertainty. In further tracking the closed‐loop stability and nonlinear uncertainty, an extended state observer has been employed to solve the immeasurability and nonlinear uncertainty within a nonlinear system. A singular perturbation theory has been used to solve for the finite‐time stability of the closed‐loop system; furthermore, numerical simulations showed that the robust nonlinear feedback controller tracked the uncertainty in a nonlinear Duffing‐type oscillator and has proven the effectiveness of the approximate finite‐time control strategy proposed. By using an approximate finite‐time control approach with active compensation, the uncertainty in a nonlinear system could be accurately estimated and controlled. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive Output Feedback Control for a Class of Uncertain Stochastic Nonlinear Systems With Unknown Time‐Delays

This paper investigates the problem of output feedback control for a class of stochastic nonlinear systems with time‐delays. Using dynamic gain scaling technique, an adaptive update law is introduced to the observer and controller to deal with the unknown parameters. Based on the Lyapunov‐Krasovskii functional and stochastic Barbalat's lemma, it is proved that the proposed universal‐type adaptive output feedback controller can regulate all the states of the closed‐loop system almost surely. A simulation example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design procedure.     

Robust near-optimal output feedback control of non-linear systems

This work proposes a robust near-optimal non-linear output feedback controller design for a broad class of non-linear systems with time-varying bounded uncertain variables. Both vanishing and non-vanishing uncertainties are considered. Under the assumptions of input-to-state stable (ISS) inverse dynamics and vanishing uncertainty, a robust dynamic output feedback controller is constructed through combination of a high-gain observer with a robust optimal state feedback controller synthesized via Lyapunov's direct method and the inverse optimal approach. The controller enforces exponential stability and robust asymptotic output tracking with arbitrary degree of attenuation of the effect of the uncertain variables on the output of the closed-loop system, for initial conditions and uncertainty in arbitrarily large compact sets, provided that the observer gain is sufficiently large. Utilizing the inverse optimal control approach and singular perturbation techniques, the controller is shown to be near-optimal in the sense that its performance can be made arbitrarily close to the optimal performance of the robust optimal state feedback controller on the infinite time-interval by selecting the observer gain to be sufficiently large. For systems with non-vanishing uncertainties, the same controller is shown to ensure boundedness of the states, uncertainty attenuation and near-optimality on a finite time-interval. The developed controller is successfully applied to a chemical reactor example.     

Inverse optimal sliding mode control of spacecraft with coupled translation and attitude dynamics

This paper proposes two robust inverse optimal control schemes for spacecraft with coupled translation and attitude dynamics in the presence of external disturbances. For the first controller, an inverse optimal control law is designed based on Sontag-type formula and the control Lyapunov function. Then a robust inverse optimal position and attitude controller is designed by using a new second-order integral sliding mode control method to combine a sliding mode control with the derived inverse optimal control. The global asymptotic stability of the proposed control law is proved by using the second method of Lyapunov. For the other control law, a nonlinear H_∞ inverse optimal controller for spacecraft position and attitude tracking motion is developed to achieve the design conditions of controller gains that the control law becomes suboptimal H_∞ state feedback control. The ultimate boundedness of system state is proved by using the Lyapunov stability theory. Both developed robust inverse optimal controllers can minimise a performance index and ensure the stability of the closed-loop system and external disturbance attenuation. An example of position and attitude tracking manoeuvres is presented and simulation results are included to show the performance of the proposed controllers.     

Fixed‐order robust H∞ control and control‐oriented uncertainty set shaping for systems with ellipsoidal parametric uncertainty

In this paper, sufficient conditions for robust output feedback controller design for systems with ellipsoidal parametric uncertainty are given in terms of solutions to a set of linear matrix inequalities. A polynomial method is employed to design a fixed‐order controller that assigns closed‐loop poles within a given region of the complex plane and that satisfies an H_∞ performance specification. The main feature of the proposed method is that it can be extended easily for control‐oriented uncertainty set shaping using a standard input design approach. Consequently, the results can be extended to joint robust control/input design procedure whose controller structure and performance specifications are translated into the requirements on the input signal spectrum used in system identification. This way, model uncertainty set can be tuned for the robust control design procedure. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

具有参数不确定性的非线性系统的鲁棒输出跟踪

研究具有非线性参数化的非线性系统的输出跟踪问题.采用时变状态反馈控制律, 指数镇定输出跟踪误差,并保证非线性系统的所有状态是有界的.为了实现时变状态反馈控 制律,设计高增益鲁棒观测器观测构造该控制律所需要的状态,使得整个闭环系统的输出能 渐近跟踪期望输出,且该闭环系统中所有信号都是有界的.     

Robust nonlinear control of atomic force microscope via immersion and invariance

This paper reports an immersion and invariance (I&I)–based robust nonlinear controller for atomic force microscope (AFM) applications. The AFM dynamics is prone to chaos, which, in practice, leads to performance degradation and inaccurate measurements. Therefore, we design a nonlinear tracking controller that stabilizes the AFM dynamics around a desired periodic orbit. To this end, in the tracking error state space, we define a target invariant manifold, on which the system dynamics fulfills the control objective. First, considering a nominal case with full state measurement and no modeling uncertainty, we design an I&I controller to render the target manifold exponentially attractive. Next, we consider an uncertain AFM dynamics, in which only the displacement of the probe cantilever is measured. In the framework of the I&I method, we recast the robust output feedback control problem as the immersion of the output feedback closed‐loop system into the nominal full state one. For this purpose, we define another target invariant manifold that recovers the performance of the nominal control system. Moreover, to handle large uncertainty/disturbances, we incorporate the method of active disturbance rejection into the I&I output feedback control. Through Lyapunov‐based analysis of the closed‐loop stability and robustness, we show the semiglobal practical stability and convergence of the tracking error dynamics. Finally, we present a set of detailed, comparative software simulations to assess the effectiveness of the control method.     

Extended filtering high‐gain output feedback controller for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems subject to external disturbances

In this article, an extended filtering high‐gain output feedback controller is developed for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems subject to external disturbances. The nonlinearities under consideration satisfy a semiglobal Lipschitz condition. The proposed control architecture integrates the extended state observer (ESO), high gain, and low‐pass filter together. None of them is used alone. The ESO can not only estimate the unknown internal state, but also deliver a good property of disturbance rejection simultaneously due to the presence of high gain. Since the high gain deteriorates the robustness of the system, a low‐pass filtering mechanism is added in the control law to filter away aggressive signals and recover the robustness. The filtering control law is designed to compensate the nonlinear uncertainties and deliver a good tracking performance with guaranteed stability. The matched uncertainties are canceled directly by adopting their opposite in the control signal, whereas a dynamic inversion of the system is required to eliminate the effect of the mismatched uncertainties on the output. Since the virtual reference system defines the best performance that can be achieved by the closed‐loop system, the uniform performance bounds are derived for the states and control signals via comparison. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the novel design via comparisons with the model reference adaptive control method and L₁ adaptive controller.     

Inertia‐free saturated output feedback attitude stabilization for uncertain spacecraft

In this article, the problem of robust output feedback attitude stabilization control for a class of uncertain spacecraft is investigated, which contains external disturbances, model parameter uncertainty, unknown and uncertain inertia, controller's gain perturbations, measurement errors, and input saturation. The aim of this work is to design a dynamic output feedback controller such that the closed‐loop attitude system is stabilized, while the H_∞ norm of the transfer function from the lumped disturbance and measurement error to output is ensured to be less than a pre‐specified disturbance attenuation level, and the actual control input is confined into a certain range simultaneously. Based on the Lyapunov theory, the existence conditions of such controller are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities. It is worth mentioning that the controller's additive and multiplicative perturbations are accounted for respectively. An illustrative example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantage of the proposed control design method.     

A mixed PI/VI design method for nonlinear H∞ Control

This paper proposes a new mixed policy iteration and value iteration (PI/VI) design method for nonlinear H_∞ control based on the theories of polynomial optimization and Lasserre's hierarchy. The design of a mixed PI/VI controller can be carried out in four steps: firstly, initialize design parameters and expand nonlinear system matrices; secondly, obtain a polynomial matrix inequality for policy improvement; thirdly, obtain the Lasserre's hierarchy of a global polynomial optimization problem for value improvement; fourthly, perform the mixed PI/VI algorithm to approximate the optimal nonlinear H_∞ control law. The novelty of this work lies in that the problem of designing a nonlinear H_∞ controller is translated into a polynomial global optimization problem, which can be solved by Lasserre's hierarchy directly, and then, the mixed PI/VI algorithm is presented to approximate the optimal nonlinear H_∞ control law by updating global optimizers iteratively. The main results of this paper consist of the mixed PI/VI algorithm and the related three theorems, which guarantee robust stability and performance of the closed‐loop nonlinear system. Numerical simulations show that the mixed PI/VI algorithm converges very fast and achieves good robust stability and performance in transient behavior, disturbance rejection, and enlarging the domain of attraction of the close‐loop system.     

Robust‐decentralized tracking control for a class of uncertain MIMO nonlinear systems with time‐varying delays

A new control design method based on signal compensation is proposed for a class of uncertain multi‐input multi‐output (MIMO) nonlinear systems in block‐triangular form with nonlinear uncertainties, unknown virtual control coefficients, strongly coupled interconnections, time‐varying delays, and external disturbances. By this method, the controller design is performed in a backstepping manner. At each step of backstepping procedure, a nominal virtual controller is first designed to get desired output tracking for the nominal disturbance‐free subsystem, and then a robust virtual compensator is designed to restrain the effect of the uncertainties, delays involved in the subsystem, and the couplings among the subsystems. The designed controller is linear and time‐invariant, so the explosion of complexity in the control law is avoid. It is proved that robust stability and robust practical tracking property of the closed‐loop system can be ensured, and the tracking errors can be made as small as desired. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A modified dynamic surface approach for control of nonlinear systems with unknown input dead zone

This paper focuses on the robust output precise tracking control problem of uncertain nonlinear systems in pure‐feedback form with unknown input dead zone. By designing an extended state observer, the states unmeasurable problem in traditional feedback control is solved, and the lumped uncertainty, which is caused by system unknown functions and input dead zone, is estimated. In order to apply separation principle, finite‐time extended state observer is designed to obtain system states and estimate the lumped uncertainty. Then, by introducing tracking differentiator, a modified dynamic surface control approach is developed to eliminate the ‘explosion of complexity’ problem and guarantee the tracking performance of system output. Because tracking differentiator is a fast precise signal filter, the closed‐loop control performance is significantly improved when it is used in dynamic surface control instead of first‐order filters. The L _∞ stability of the whole closed‐loop system, which guarantees both the transient and steady‐state performance, is shown by the Lyapunov method and initialization technique. Numerical and experiment examples are performed to illustrate our proposed control scheme with satisfactory results. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Backstepping Robust H ∞ Control for a Class of Uncertain Switched Nonlinear Systems Under Arbitrary Switchings

This paper addresses global robust H _∞ control for a class of switched nonlinear systems with uncertainty under arbitrary switchings. Each subsystem is in lower triangular form. The uncertainties are assumed to be in a known compact set. The backstepping design technique is used to design a smooth state feedback controller that renders the associated closed‐loop switched system globally robustly asymptotically stable and imposes a pre‐specified upper bound to the L ₂‐gain under arbitrary switchings. An example is provided to demonstrate the efficacy of the design approach.     

一类不确定非线性系统的指数鲁棒输出跟踪

研究一类不确定非线性系统的鲁棒输出跟踪控制问题。应用输入／输出反馈线性化法和李亚普诺夫方法,提出一种基于不确定项上界的连续型鲁棒输出跟踪控制器设计方法。该控制器不仅可确保闭环系统的状态一致最终有界,使系统输出按指数规律跟踪期望输出,而且计算简单,更易实现。仿真结果证明了该方法的可行性与有效性。     

Observer‐based H ∞ output tracking control for networked control systems

This paper is concerned with observer‐based H _∞ output tracking control for networked control systems. An observer‐based controller is implemented through a communication network to drive the output of a controlled plant to track the output of a reference model. The inputs of the controlled plant and the observer‐based tracking controller are updated in an asynchronous way because of the effects of network‐induced delays and packet dropouts in the controller‐to‐actuator channel. Taking the asynchronous characteristic into consideration, the resulting closed‐loop system is modeled as a system with two interval time‐varying delays. A Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional, which makes use of information about the lower and upper bounds of the interval time‐varying delays, is constructed to derive a delay‐dependent criterion such that the closed‐loop system has a desired H _∞ tracking performance. Notice that a separation principle cannot be used to design an observer gain and a control gain due to the asynchronous inputs of the plant and the controller. Instead, a novel design algorithm is proposed by applying a particle swarm optimization technique with the feasibility of the stability criterion to search for the minimum H _∞ tracking performance and the corresponding gains. The effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated by an example. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust consensus tracking of double‐integrator dynamics by bounded distributed control

This paper studies the robust consensus tracking problem of multiple second‐order systems with additive disturbances and a direct communication topology. We design a continuous, bounded and distributed controller that is composed of a tracker and an uncertainty and disturbance estimator. The tracker makes the nominal closed‐loop system globally asymptotically stable, while the output of uncertainty and disturbance estimator attenuates the effect of disturbances. We show that if the disturbances converge to constants, the tracking error converges asymptotically to zero, whereas for other types of disturbances, the obtained error system is small‐signal L_∞ stable. Some inequalities are developed to show the relationship between the ultimate bounds of tracking errors and the design parameters. Finally, simulation results for four cases are presented to demonstrate the performance of the controller. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust precision attitude tracking of an uncertain rigid spacecraft based on regulation theory

This paper explores regulation theory for the design of robust precision attitude tracking of an uncertain rigid spacecraft with external disturbances. Focusing on the attitude system in terms of unit quaternions with an unknown inertia matrix and unmodeled input disturbances, we first introduce specific nonlinear logic such that the resultant error‐quaternion system has an input‐to‐state stability property. Then, we establish an attitude deviation system with an output feedback normal form that has a strict vector relative degree of unity. This enables us to achieve robust output regulation based on an internal model. In particular, we can construct a high‐gain stabilizer for the relevant augmented system. As a major consequence, our study achieves not only precision attitude tracking with exponential convergence but also the input‐to‐state stability disturbance attenuation for the closed‐loop system. Finally, we show extensive simulation and experimental results to illustrate the approach.     

Robust H∞ control for uncertain singular systems with state delay

This paper addresses the problem of robust H_∞ control for uncertain continuous singular systems with state delay. The singular system under consideration involves state time delay and time‐invariant norm‐bounded uncertainty. Based on the linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach, we design a memoryless state feedback controller law, which guarantees that, for all admissible uncertainties, the resulting closed‐loop system is not only regular, impulse free and stable, but also meets an H_∞‐norm bound constraint on disturbance attenuation. A numerical example is provided to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Resilient H∞ Control Design for Discrete‐Time Uncertain Linear Systems: An Auxiliary System Transformation Approach

This paper studies the resilient (non‐fragile) H∞ output‐feedback control design for discrete‐time uncertain linear systems with controller uncertainty. The design considers parametric norm‐bounded uncertainty in all state‐space matrices of the system, output and controller equations. The paper shows that the resilient H∞ output‐feedback control problem is equivalent to a scaled H∞ output‐feedback control problem of an auxiliary system without any system or controller uncertainty. Using the existing optimal H∞ design to solve the auxiliary system, the design guarantees that the resultant closed‐loop systems are quadratically stable with disturbance attenuation γ for all admissible system and controller uncertainties. A numerical example is given to illustrate the design method and its benefits.