DISCRETE‐TIME OBSERVER‐BASED OUTPUT TRACKING CONTROLLER DESIGN FOR NONMINIMUM PHASE SYSTEMS WITH PERTURBATIONS

In this paper, an observer‐based output tracking controller for an SISO nonminimum phase discrete‐time system is proposed. When the disturbances between two consecutive sampling instances do not vary significantly, the observer algorithm can simultaneously estimate the system states and the unknown perturbation, and can render the estimation errors of system states and perturbation constrained in a small bounded region. The control law, including a feedforward term and a feedback input, can make the tracking error constrained in a small bounded region with guaranteed system stability. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed control scheme.     

High‐gain observer with higher order sliding mode for state and unknown disturbance estimations

In this paper, we consider the estimation problem of a class of single‐input–single‐output nonlinear Lipschitz systems with nonmatching uncertainty or disturbance, where the distribution vector may include the unknown states. A hybrid nonlinear observer structure that combines a high‐gain feedback with higher order sliding mode term is proposed. The high‐gain feedback works to constrain the estimation error to within an invariant set, and the sliding mode term will asymptotically track the uncertainty if the system satisfies strict structure assumptions. Furthermore, with the higher order sliding mode, the chattering effect will be effectively attenuated without sacrificing robustness, and the system uncertainty can be recovered without filtering effect. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global tracking sliding mode control for a class of nonlinear systems via variable gain observer

A novel output‐feedback sliding mode control strategy is proposed for a class of single‐input single‐output (SISO) uncertain time‐varying nonlinear systems for which a norm state estimator can be implemented. Such a class encompasses minimum‐phase systems with nonlinearities affinely norm bounded by unmeasured states with growth rate depending nonlinearly on the measured system output and on the internal states related with the zero‐dynamics. The sliding surface is generated by using the state of a high gain observer (HGO) whereas a peaking free control amplitude is obtained via a norm observer. In contrast to the existing semi‐global sliding mode control solutions available in the literature for the class of plants considered here, the proposed scheme is free of peaking and achieves global tracking with respect to a small residual set. The key idea is to design a time‐varying HGO gain implementable from measurable signals. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust output tracking control for a velocity‐sensorless vertical take‐off and landing aircraft with input disturbances and unmatched uncertainties

In this paper, we develop a nonlinear controller to achieve output tracking for a nonminimum phase vertical take‐off and landing aircraft without velocity measurements. To attenuate the effects of input disturbances and unmatched uncertainties, auxiliary control inputs are introduced in the state observer. Then by taking the aircraft lateral movement into consideration, a control law is proposed to force the vertical take‐off and landing aircraft to asymptotically track the desired trajectories even in the presence of unexpected changes of the trajectories, while driving the unstable internal dynamics to follow the bounded and causal ideal internal dynamics via the stable system center method. Numerical simulation results illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed controller. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sliding mode output‐feedback causal output tracking for a class of discrete‐time nonlinear systems

The output tracking (OT) of arbitrary references in discrete‐time (DT) nonlinear systems is addressed by designing an output‐feedback control. A set of difference‐algebraic equations is proposed as an exact solution of the problem. Using a novel technique of approximating DT functions, the system disturbance and steady states, characterized by tracking error identically zero, for both the system state and the control input, are represented as signals generated by a disturbed dynamic system. Using the mentioned dynamics, the control system is extended. Then, a state observer is proposed to estimate the resulting extended system state. Finally, a DT sliding mode controller is designed to achieve the approximate OT. Simulations show the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.     

Sliding mode control of boost and buck‐boost power converters using the dynamic sliding manifold

Non‐minimum phase tracking control is studied for boost and buck‐boost power converters. A sliding mode control algorithm is developed to track directly a causal voltage tracking profile given by an exogenous system. The approximate causal output non‐minimum phase asymptotic tracking in non‐linear boost and buck‐boost power converters is addressed via sliding mode control using a dynamic sliding manifold (DSM). Use of DSM allows the stabilization of the internal dynamics when the output tracking error tends asymptotically to zero in the sliding mode. The sliding mode controller with DSM links features of conventional sliding mode control (insensitivity to matched non‐linearities and disturbances) and a conventional dynamic compensator (accommodation to unmatched disturbances). Numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the sliding mode controller even for a known time‐varying load. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive tracking control of MIMO nonlinear nonminimum phase system with unknown input nonlinearity

This paper proposes a nonlinear adaptive control for output tracking of multi‐input multi‐output nonlinear nonminimum phase system with input nonlinearity. The parameters of the input nonlinearity are assumed to be unknown. This problem is challenging, not only because of the unstable internal dynamics of nonminimum phase system, but also the existence of the unknown input nonlinearity. The partially linearized model of the original system is obtained through input/output linearization, and a states tracking model is constructed based on the computed ideal internal dynamics. A nonlinear adaptive controller, which can guarantee the bounded of output tracking error in the existence of unknown input nonlinearity, is proposed. Finally, a numerical simulation on vertical takeoff and landing aircraft is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed control methods.     

Global asymptotic tracking for nonminimum‐phase nonlinear systems in output feedback form

The problem of global asymptotic tracking by output feedback is studied for a class of nonminimum‐phase nonlinear systems in output feedback form. It is proved that the problem is solvable by an n‐dimensional output feedback controller under the two conditions: (a) the nonminimum‐phase nonlinear system can be rendered minimum‐phase by a virtual output; and (b) the internal dynamics of the nonlinear system driven by a desired signal and its derivatives has a bounded solution trajectory. With the help of a new coordinate transformation, a constructive method is presented for the design of a dynamic output tracking controller. An example is given to validate the proposed output feedback tracking control scheme.     

Robust discrete‐time nonlinear sliding mode state estimation of uncertain nonlinear systems

In this paper, we propose a discrete‐time nonlinear sliding mode observer for state and unknown input estimations of a class of single‐input/single‐output nonlinear uncertain systems. The uncertainties are characterized by a state‐dependent vector and a scalar disturbance/unknown input. The discrete‐time model is derived through Taylor series expansion together with nonlinear state transformation. A design methodology that combines the discrete‐time sliding mode (DSM) and a nonlinear observer design is adopted, and a strategy is developed to guarantee the convergence of the estimation error to a bound within the specified boundary layer. A relation between sliding mode gain and boundary layer is established for the existence of DSM, and the estimation is made robust to external disturbances and uncertainties. The unknown input or disturbance can also be estimated through the sliding mode. The conditions for the asymptotical stability of the estimation error are analysed. Application to a bioreactor is given and the simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Active Disturbance Rejection Approach to Leader‐Follower Controlled Formation

This article describes the design of a linearizing, observer‐based, robust dynamic feedback control scheme for output reference trajectory tracking tasks in a leader‐follower non‐holonomic car formation problem. The approach is based on the cars' kinematic models. A radical simplification in the form of a global ultra‐model is proposed on the follower's exact open loop position tracking error dynamics obtained via flatness considerations. This results in a system described by an additively disturbed set of two, second order integrators with non‐linear velocity dependent control input gain matrix. The unknown additive disturbances are modeled as absolutely uniformly bounded time signals which may be locally approximated by arbitrary elements of a sufficiently high degree family of Taylor polynomials. Linear high‐gain Luenberger observers of the generalized proportional integral (GPI) type may be readily designed. These observers include the self updating internal model of the unknown disturbance input vector components in the form of generic, instantaneous, time‐polynomial models. The proposed (GPI) observers, which are the dual counterpart of GPI controllers [17], achieve a simultaneous disturbance estimation and tracking error phase variables estimation. This on‐line gathered information is used to advantage on the follower's feedback controller thus allowing for a simple, yet efficient, disturbance and control input gain cancelation effort. The results are applied to have the follower track a time‐delayed version of the actual leader's trajectory. Experimental results are presented which illustrate the robustness and viability of the proposed approach.     

Global Practical Tracking for Nonlinear Systems With More Unknowns via Adaptive Output‐Feedback

This paper investigates the global practical tracking via adaptive output‐feedback for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems. Essentially different from the closely related literature, the system under investigation possesses unknown time‐varying control coefficients and a polynomial‐of‐output growth rate, and meanwhile, the system nonlinearities and the reference signal allow serious unknowns. For this, an adaptive observer is designed to reconstruct the system unmeasured states, where a new dynamic gain is introduced to compensate the serious unknowns in the system nonlinearities and the reference signal. Based on this and by backstepping technique, an adaptive output‐feedback controller is successfully designed, such that all the states of the closed‐loop system are bounded, and the tracking error will be prescribed sufficiently small after a finite time. A numerical simulation is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Robust fault diagnosis and fault‐tolerant control for non‐Gaussian uncertain stochastic distribution control systems

The purpose of fault diagnosis of stochastic distribution control systems is to use the measured input and the system output probability density function to obtain the fault estimation information. A fault diagnosis and sliding mode fault‐tolerant control algorithms are proposed for non‐Gaussian uncertain stochastic distribution control systems with probability density function approximation error. The unknown input caused by model uncertainty can be considered as an exogenous disturbance, and the augmented observation error dynamic system is constructed using the thought of unknown input observer. Stability analysis is performed for the observation error dynamic system, and the H_∞ performance is guaranteed. Based on the information of fault estimation and the desired output probability density function, the sliding mode fault‐tolerant controller is designed to make the post‐fault output probability density function still track the desired distribution. This method avoids the difficulties of design of fault diagnosis observer caused by the uncertain input, and fault diagnosis and fault‐tolerant control are integrated. Two different illustrated examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Boundary stabilization of a cascade of ODE‐wave systems subject to boundary control matched disturbance

In this paper, we are concerned with a cascade of ODE‐wave systems with the control actuator‐matched disturbance at the boundary of the wave equation. We use the sliding mode control (SMC) technique and the active disturbance rejection control method to overcome the disturbance, respectively. By the SMC approach, the disturbance is supposed to be bounded only. The existence and uniqueness of solution for the closed‐loop via SMC are proved, and the monotonicity of the ‘reaching condition’ is presented without the differentiation of the sliding mode function, for which it may not always exist for the weak solution of the closed‐loop system. Considering that the SMC usually requires the large control gain and may exhibit chattering behavior, we then develop an active disturbance rejection control to attenuate the disturbance. The disturbance is canceled in the feedback loop. The closed‐loop systems with constant high gain and time‐varying high gain are shown respectively to be practically stable and asymptotically stable. Then we continue to consider output feedback stabilization for this coupled ODE‐wave system, and we design a variable structure unknown input‐type state observer that is shown to be exponentially convergent. The disturbance is estimated through the extended state observer and then canceled in the feedback loop by its approximated value. These enable us to design an observer‐based output feedback stabilizing control to this uncertain coupled system. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hybrid‐impulsive second‐order sliding mode control: Lyapunov approach

Dynamic system of relative degree two controlled by discontinuous‐hybrid‐impulsive feedback in the presence of bounded perturbations is considered. The state feedback impulsive‐twisting control exhibits a uniform exact finite time convergence to the second‐order sliding mode with zero convergence time. The output feedback discontinuous control augmented by a simplified hybrid‐impulsive functions provides uniform exact convergence with zero convergence time of the system's states to a real second‐order sliding mode in the presence of bounded perturbations. Only ‘snap’ knowledge of the output derivative, that is, the knowledge of the output derivative in isolated time instants, is required. The output feedback hybrid‐impulsive control with practically implemented impulsive actions asymptotically drives the system's states to the origin. The Lyapunov analysis of the considered hybrid‐impulsive‐discontinuous system proves the system's stability. The efficacy of the proposed control technique is illustrated via computer simulations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust output tracking control of a class of non-minimum phase systems and application to VTOL aircraft

In this article, we study the output tracking control of a class of MIMO nonlinear non-minimum phase systems in the presence of input disturbances. In order to attenuate the effects of disturbances, the method of uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE) is extended to the controller design for non-minimum phase systems. Due to the fact that the accumulated disturbances is composed of internal states and external disturbances, a different stability analysis is given, and the overall closed-loop system is proved to be semi-globally stable. The proposed state-feedback controller not only forces system outputs to asymptotically track desired trajectories, but also drives the unstable internal dynamics to follow bounded and causal ideal internal dynamics (IID) solved via stable system centre (SSC) method. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed controller achieves excellent tracking and disturbance rejection performance via the example of VTOL aircraft which has been the benchmark of nonlinear non-minimum phase systems.     

Fast terminal sliding‐mode finite‐time tracking control with differential evolution optimization algorithm using integral chain differentiator in uncertain nonlinear systems

This paper presents a fast terminal sliding‐mode tracking control for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with unknown parameters and system states combined with time‐varying disturbances. Fast terminal sliding‐mode finite‐time tracking systems based on differential evolution algorithms incorporate an integral chain differentiator (ICD) to feedback systems for the estimation of the unknown system states. The differential evolution optimization algorithm using ICD is also applied to a tracking controller, which provides unknown parametric estimation in the limitation of unknown system states for trajectory tracking. The ICD in the tracking systems strengthens the tracking controller robustness for the disturbances by filtering noises. As a powerful finite‐time control effort, the fast terminal sliding‐mode tracking control guarantees that all tracking errors rapidly converge to the origin. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified via simulations, and the results exhibit high‐precision output tracking performance in uncertain nonlinear systems.     

Stabilization and Tracking Control of X‐Z Inverted Pendulum Using Flatness Based Active Disturbance Rejection Control

A flatness based robust active disturbance rejection control technique scheme with tracking differentiator is proposed for the problem of stabilization and tracking control of the X‐Z inverted pendulum known as a special underactuated, non‐feedback linearizable mechanical system. The differential parameterization on the basis of linearizing the system around an arbitrary equilibrium decouples the underactuated system into two lower order systems, resulting in two lower‐order extended state observers. Using a tracking differentiator to arrange the transient process utilizes the problem of stabilization and tracking control and gives a relatively small initial estimation error, which enlarges the range of the controller parameters. The convincing analysis of the proposed modified linear extended state observer is presented to show its high effectiveness on estimating the states and the extended states known as the total disturbances consisting of the unknown external disturbances and the nonlinearities neglected by the linearization. Simulation results on the stabilization and tracking control of the X‐Z inverted pendulum, including a comparative simulation with an all‐state‐feedback sliding mode controller are presented to show the advantages of the combination of flatness and active disturbance rejection control techniques.     

Time‐varying input delay compensation for nonlinear systems with additive disturbance: An output feedback approach

This paper addresses the output feedback tracking control of a class of multiple‐input and multiple‐output nonlinear systems subject to time‐varying input delay and additive bounded disturbances. Based on the backstepping design approach, an output feedback robust controller is proposed by integrating an extended state observer and a novel robust controller, which uses a desired trajectory‐based feedforward term to achieve an improved model compensation and a robust delay compensation feedback term based on the finite integral of the past control values to compensate for the time‐varying input delay. The extended state observer can simultaneously estimate the unmeasurable system states and the additive disturbances only with the output measurement and delayed control input. The proposed controller theoretically guarantees prescribed transient performance and steady‐state tracking accuracy in spite of the presence of time‐varying input delay and additive bounded disturbances based on Lyapunov stability analysis by using a Lyapunov‐Krasovskii functional. A specific study on a 2‐link robot manipulator is performed; based on the system model and the proposed design procedure, a suitable controller is developed, and comparative simulation results are obtained to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed control scheme.     

Composite stratified anti‐disturbance control for a class of MIMO discrete‐time systems with nonlinearity

Anti‐disturbance control and estimation problem are investigated for nonlinear system subject to multi‐source disturbances. The disturbances classified model is proposed based on the error and noise analysis of priori knowledge. The disturbance observers are constructed separately from the controller design to estimate the disturbance with partial known information. By integrating disturbance‐observer‐based control with discrete‐time sliding‐mode control (DSMC), a novel type of composite stratified anti‐disturbance control scheme is presented for a class of multiple‐input–multiple‐output discrete‐time systems with known and unknown nonlinear dynamics, respectively. Simulations for a flight control system are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the results compared with the previous schemes. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.