Stabilisation of state‐and‐input constrained nonlinear systems via diffeomorphisms: A Sontag's formula approach with an actual application

In this work, we provide a new and constructive outlook for the control of state‐and‐input constrained nonlinear systems. Previously, explicit solutions have been mainly focused on the finding of a barrier‐like Lyapunov function, whereas we propose the construction of a diffeomorphism to map all the trajectories of the constrained dynamics into an unconstrained one. Careful analysis has revealed that only some foundations of differential geometry and a technical assumption are necessary to construct the proposed methodology based on the well‐established theories of control Lyapunov functions and Sontag's universal formulae. Altogether, it allows us to obtain an explicit solution that even includes bounded constraints in the control action, giving the designer a way to decide (to some extent) the trade‐off between control saturations and robustness. Moreover, this approach does not rely on the own structure of the system dynamics, therefore covering a broad class of nonlinear systems. The main advantage of this approach is that the use of a diffeomorphism allows the splitting of the mathematical treatment of the constraint and the Lyapunov controller design. The result has been successfully applied to solve the dynamic positioning of an actual ship, where the nonlinear state constraints describe a strait. This approach enabled us to design a control Lyapunov function and thereby use Sontag's formula to solve the stabilisation problem. Realistic simulations have been executed in a real scenario on the simulator owned by an international shipbuilding company.     

一种空间飞行器姿态控制非线性模型的预测控制新算法

空间飞行器的姿态控制受到诸如带时延的非线性动态特性、模型和参数的不确定性等因素的影响 ,其控制相当复杂。传统的控制技术 (如PID控制 )对控制对象的过程模型要求较高 ,且不能解决过程控制中非线性、时变、控制输入的约束性等因素的影响 ,其控制所能达到的性能和效率也远不够满足当前飞行器的控制要求。该文将介绍一种新型的基于控制输入的函数空间最优化的模型预测控制算法 ,称为函数空间模型预测控制 (F -MPC)。该法可用于线性和非线性系统 ,对过程模型要求不高 ,能在控制输入约束条件存在的情况下通过在线优化使系统很好地跟踪期望轨迹 ,并且解决了PID控制所遇到的问题。同时 ,将该算法用于空间飞行器的姿态控制仿真 ,仿真结果表明控制效果很好。     

Non‐parametric linear time‐invariant extensions of non‐invertible and backlash plant

A rigorous validation for the use of a set of linear time‐invariant models as a surrogate in the design of controllers for uncertain nonlinear systems, which are invertible as one‐to‐one operators, such as used in the nonlinear quantitative feedback theory (NLQFT) design methodology has been given by Baños and Bailey. This paper presents a similar validation but weakens the requirement on the invertibility of the nonlinear plant by application of Kakutani's fixed‐point theorem and an incremental gain constraint on the plant within its operational envelope. The set of linear time‐invariant models to be used for design is shown to be an extension (termed here the linear time‐invariant extension—LTIE) of the nonlinear plant restricted to the desired output operating space. A new non‐parametric approach to the modelling of the LTIE is proposed which is based on Fourier transforms of the plant I/O data and which accordingly may be based solely on experimental testing without the need for an explicit parametric plant model. This new approach thus extends the application of robust linear controller design methods (including those of NLQFT) to nonlinear plants with set‐valued (multi‐valued) inverses such as those containing backlash and also to plants for which explicit parametric models are difficult to obtain. The method is illustrated by application of the non‐parametric approach to an NLQFT tracking controller design for a mechanical backlashed servomechanism problem. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

State waypoint approach to continuous‐time nonlinear optimal control problems

In this paper, we propose an optimal control technique for a class of continuous‐time nonlinear systems. The key idea of the proposed approach is to parametrize continuous state trajectories by sequences of a finite number of intermediate target states; namely, waypoint sequences. It is shown that the optimal control problem for transferring the state from one waypoint to the next is given an explicit‐form suboptimal solution, by means of linear approximation. Thus the original continuous‐time nonlinear control problem reduces to a finite‐dimensional optimization problem of waypoint sequences. Any efficient numerical optimization method, such as the interior‐reflection Newton method, can be applied to solve this optimization problem. Finally, we solve the optimal control problem for a simple nonlinear system example to illustrate the effectiveness of this approach. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

A trajectory‐based method for constructing null controllable regions

The problem of determining a system's set of stabilizable states, the null controllable region (NCR), is intricately related to the problem of determining control Lyapunov functions. In this paper, we address the problem of construction of the NCR for control‐affine nonlinear systems with input constraints. To this end, we explain how the boundary of the NCR is covered by time‐optimal trajectories. To construct the NCR, we employ an algorithm based on Pontryagin's minimum principle, which integrates optimal trajectories of a special smooth system in reverse time from the boundary of an initial NCR estimate. We illustrate this algorithm with linear and nonlinear system examples.     

Survey on Passivity Based Control of Induction Machine

Induction machines (IM) constitute a theoretically interesting and practically important class of nonlinear systems. They are frequently used as wind generators for their power/cost ratio. They are described by a fifth‐order nonlinear differential equation with two inputs and only three state variables available for measurement. The control task is further complicated by the fact that IM are subject to unknown (load) disturbances and the parameters can be of great uncertainty. One is then faced with the challenging problem of controlling a highly nonlinear system, with unknown time‐varying parameters, where the regulated output, besides being unmeasurable, is perturbed by an unknown additive signal. Passivity‐based control (PBC) is a well‐established structure‐preserving design methodology which has shown to be very powerful to design robust controllers for physical systems described by Euler‐Lagrange equations of motion. PBCs provide a natural procedure to "shape" the potential energy yielding controllers with a clear physical interpretation in terms of interconnection of the system with its environment and are robust vis á vis to unmodeled dissipative effects. One recent approach of PBC is the Interconnection and Damping Assignment Passivity‐Based Control (IDA‐PBC) which is a very useful technique to control nonlinear systems assigning a desired (Port‐Controlled Hamiltonian) structure to the closed‐loop. The aim of this paper is to give a survey on different PBC of IM. The originality of this work is that the author proves that the well known field oriented control of IM is a particular case of the IDA‐PBC with disturbance.     

Frequency‐based nonlinear controller design for regulating systems subjected to time‐domain constraints

Presented is a nonlinear controller design methodology for a class of linear regulating systems subjected to quantitative time‐domain constraints. The design objective is to satisfy an output time‐domain tolerance given an actuator saturation constraint despite an external step disturbance. The goal is to increase the allowable magnitude of the external disturbance beyond that achievable via linear control subject to the time‐domain specifications. The controller design process is comprised of two phases. In the first phase, a linear controller is designed that balances the trade‐off between output regulation and required actuation. To realize the linear design, the time‐domain performance specifications are mapped into amplitude and phase constraints which are in turn imposed on the frequency response of the linear open‐loop transfer function. In the second phase, the linear controller is then augmented with an odd nonlinearity. The coefficient for the nonlinear term is designed such that the gain and phase distortions (in the sense of describing functions) meet the frequency‐domain constraints. The describing function calculation is automated by a recursive Volterra Series relationship. The nonlinear controller design methodology is experimentally verified on the idle speed control of a Ford 4.6L V‐8 fuel injected engine. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A generalized exact tracking control methodology for disturbed nonlinear systems via homogeneous domination approach

A generalized homogeneous exact set‐point tracking control methodology for a class of disturbed higher‐order nonlinear systems is investigated in this paper. By virtue of utilizing the disturbance estimation and active elimination approach, a homogeneous domination feedback technique is then integrated such that a generalized composite active anti‐disturbance control framework is proposed with a delicate handling procedure of the non‐vanishing nonlinearities. The proposed methodology has several new features. First, a genuine nonlinear composite controller employing the system nonlinearities will bring an improvement of the control performances. Second, the flexility of the design methodology renders its suitability for random output tracking with mismatched disturbances in every channel. Moreover, the control function is constructed in a neat nested form and hence easier to be implemented. Numerical simulation results affirm the output tracking control performances. Copyright © 2016 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.     

Time‐ and State‐Dependent Input Delay‐Compensated Bang‐Bang Control of a Screw Extruder for 3D Printing

In this paper, a delay‐compensated bang‐bang control design methodology for the control of the nozzle output flow rate of screw extruder‐based three‐dimensional printing processes is developed. A geometrical decomposition of the screw extruder in a partially and a fully filled regions allows to describe the material convection in the extruder chamber by a one‐dimensional hyperbolic partial differential equation (PDE) coupled with an ordinary differential equation. After solving the hyperbolic PDE by the method of characteristics, the coupled PDE–ordinary differential equation's system is transformed into a nonlinear state‐dependent input delay system. The aforementioned delay system is extended to the non‐isothermal case with the consideration of periodic fluctuations acting on the material's convection speed, which represent the process variabilities due to temperature changes in the extruder chamber, resulting to a nonlinear system with an input delay that simultaneously depends on the state and the time variable. Global exponential stability of the nonlinear delay‐free plant is established under a piecewise exponential feedback controller that is designed. By combining the nominal, piecewise exponential feedback controller with nonlinear predictor feedback, the compensation of the time‐dependent and state‐dependent input delay of the extruder model is achieved. Global asymptotic stability of the closed‐loop system under the bang‐bang predictor feedback control law is established when certain conditions related to the extruder design and the material properties, as well as to the magnitude and frequency of the materials transport speed variations, are satisfied. Simulations results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control design. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nonlinear MPC for a Sensorless Multi‐Vectored Propeller Airship Based on Sliding Mode Observer with Saturation

A nonlinear fault tolerant station keeping controller for a multi‐vectored propeller airship without velocity and angular velocity sensors is developed, which is composed of three modules: nonlinear model predictive controller (NMPC), sliding mode observer (SMO), and linear programming (LP) based control allocation. The kinematics and dynamics model of the airship are introduced. Based on the nonlinear model, with the assumption that the velocity and angular velocity sensors are damaged, a sliding mode observer is designed to estimate the velocity and angular velocity of the airship. To achieve good performance in the station keeping mission, an explicit nonlinear model predictive control is derived. A linear programming base control allocation method is proposed to solve both amplitude and rate constraint of the propulsion forces and deflection angles. Stability analysis is carried out to prove that the system can be stabilized in finite time. Simulation results for the station keeping control are illustrated to prove the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Adaptive Passivity of Nonlinear Systems Using Time-Varying Gains

In this paper, an adaptive controller with time-varying gains is proposed to solve the problem of making a single-input single-output (SISO) nonlinear system, with explicit linear parametric uncertainty, equivalent to a passive system. Some stability issues associated to the resultant closed-loop passive system are also discussed. The results obtained are applied to two examples, a third order nonlinear system and a model of a magnetic levitation system, to show the controller methodology design.     

Output feedback control of switched nonlinear systems using multiple Lyapunov functions

This work presents a hybrid nonlinear control methodology for a broad class of switched nonlinear systems with input constraints. The key feature of the proposed methodology is the integrated synthesis, via multiple Lyapunov functions, of “lower-level” bounded nonlinear feedback controllers together with “upper-level” switching laws that orchestrate the transitions between the constituent modes and their respective controllers. Both the state and output feedback control problems are addressed. Under the assumption of availability of full state measurements, a family of bounded nonlinear state feedback controllers are initially designed to enforce asymptotic stability for the individual closed-loop modes and provide an explicit characterization of the corresponding stability region for each mode. A set of switching laws are then designed to track the evolution of the state and orchestrate switching between the stability regions of the constituent modes in a way that guarantees asymptotic stability of the overall switched closed-loop system. When complete state measurements are unavailable, a family of output feedback controllers are synthesized, using a combination of bounded state feedback controllers, high-gain observers and appropriate saturation filters to enforce asymptotic stability for the individual closed-loop modes and provide an explicit characterization of the corresponding output feedback stability regions in terms of the input constraints and the observer gain. A different set of switching rules, based on the evolution of the state estimates generated by the observers, is designed to orchestrate stabilizing transitions between the output feedback stability regions of the constituent modes. The differences between the state and output feedback switching strategies, and their implications for the switching logic, are discussed and a chemical process example is used to demonstrate the proposed approach.     

基于模糊模型的非线性通用模型控制

通用模型控制是一种有效的非线性控制方法,但该方法的应用条件是过程一阶微分模型必须要有显式解.为了克服这一局限性,提出一种基于模糊模型的通用模型控制策略,将非线性过程模型应用逆系统的方法在控制算法中直接嵌入过程模型,从而保证了通用模型控制策略的可实现性.该控制器参数物理意义明显,整定方便,仿真结果表明了该控制策略的有效性和鲁棒性.     

Adaptive neural control for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with unknown time delay

A neural network (NN)‐based robust adaptive control design scheme is developed for a class of nonlinear systems represented by input–output models with an unknown nonlinear function and unknown time delay. By approximating on‐line the unknown nonlinear functions with a three‐layer feedforward NN, the proposed approach does not require the unknown parameters to satisfy the linear dependence condition. The control law is delay independent and possible controller singularity problem is avoided. It is proved that with the proposed neural control law, all the signals in the closed‐loop system are semiglobally bounded in the presence of unknown time delay and unknown nonlinearity. A simulation example is presented to demonstrate the method. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new method for control of nonlinear networked systems

Networked control of a class of nonlinear systems is considered. For this purpose, the previously proposed variable selective control (VSC) methodology is extended to the nonlinear systems. This extension is based upon the decomposition of the nonlinear system to a set fuzzy-blended locally linearized subsystems, and further application of the VSC methodology to each subsystem. Using the idea of parallel distributed compensation (PDC) method, the closed-loop stability of the overall networked system is guaranteed, using new linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). For the real-time implementation, real-time control signals are constructed for every entry of pre-specified vector of time delays, which is selected based on the presumed upper-bound of the network time delay. Similar to the traditional packet-base control methodology, such control signals are then packed as a control-side packet and transmitted back to a time delay compensator (TDC) located on the plant-side of the network. According to the most recent network time delay, the TDC selects just one entry of the control vector and applies it to the actuator through a zero order hold element. A sufficient condition for closed-loop asymptotic stability is determined. Simulation studies on nonlinear benchmark problems demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Semi‐decentralized nonlinear cooperative control strategies for a network of heterogeneous autonomous underwater vehicles

In this paper, we develop nonlinear distributed or semi‐decentralized cooperative control schemes for a team of heterogeneous autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The objective is to have the network of AUVs follow a desired trajectory, while the agents maintain a desired formation when there is a virtual leader whose position information is only available and known to a very small subset of the agents. The virtual leader does not receive any feedback and information from the other agents and the agents only communicate with their nearest neighboring agents. It is assumed that the model parameters associated with each vehicle/agent is different, although the order of the agents is the same. The developed and proposed nonlinear distributed cooperative control schemes are based on the dynamic surface control methodology for a network of heterogeneous autonomous vehicles with uncertainties. The development and investigation of the dynamic surface control methodology for a team of cooperative heterogenous multi‐agent nonlinear systems is accomplished for the first time in the literature. Simulation results corresponding to a team of six AUVs are provided to demonstrate and illustrate the advantages and superiority of our proposed cooperative control strategies as compared to the methods that are available in the literature. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stabilizability for nonlinear systems of difference equations

The stabilization problem for a class of infinite‐dimensional discrete‐time nonlinear systems is discussed. Under an appropiate growth condition on the nonlinear perturbation combined with the ‘freezing’ method to discrete‐time systems on Banach spaces, we establish explicit conditions for global feedback exponential stabilizability, and these conditions are easy to construct and to verify. This approach will allow us to avoid the construction of Lyapunov's functions in some situations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Structure at infinity revisited

The structure at infinity of an ordinary differential control system is a finite sequence of increasing integers ending with the differential output rank of the system, namely the number of outputs that can be given as arbitrary functions of time when the inputs are unknown. Its definition and construction, originally done for linear systems, has been extended to affine nonlinear systems and used in order to study dynamic decoupling or model matching. It essentially relies on a state representation. The purpose of this paper is to make a critical examination of this concept and to modify it in order to avoid the state representation. At the same time, we extend it to nonlinear partial differential control systems by exhibiting a link with formal integrability, a highly important concept in the formal theory of systems of partial differential equations that cannot be handled by means of a transfer matrix approach. Many explicit examples will illustrate the main results and the possibility to use computer algebra techniques will be pointed out.