A new smooth robust control design for uncertain nonlinear systems with non-vanishing disturbances

In this paper, we consider the control problem for a general class of nonlinear system subjected to uncertain dynamics and non-varnishing disturbances. A smooth nonlinear control algorithm is presented to tackle these uncertainties and disturbances. The proposed control design employs the integral of a nonlinear sigmoid function to compensate the uncertain dynamics, and achieve a uniformly semi-global practical asymptotic stable tracking control of the system outputs. A novel Lyapunov-based stability analysis is employed to prove the convergence of the tracking errors and the stability of the closed-loop system. Numerical simulation results on a two-link robot manipulator are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed control algorithm comparing with the layer-boundary sliding mode controller and the robust of integration of sign of error control design. Furthermore, real-time experiment results for the attitude control of a quadrotor helicopter are also included to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

Stabilisation and consensus of linear systems with multiple input delays by truncated pseudo-predictor feedback

This paper provides a new approach referred to as pseudo-predictor feedback (PPF) for stabilisation of linear systems with multiple input delays. Differently from the traditional predictor feedback which is from the model reduction appoint of view, the proposed PPF utilises the idea of prediction by generalising the corresponding results for linear systems with a single input delay to the case of multiple input delays. Since the PPF will generally lead to distributed controllers, a truncated pseudo-predictor feedback (TPPF) approach is established instead, which gives finite dimensional controllers. It is shown that the TPPF can compensate arbitrarily large yet bounded delays as long as the open-loop system is only polynomially unstable. The proposed TPPF approach is then used to solve the consensus problems for multi-agent systems characterised by linear systems with multiple input delays. Numerical examples show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Leader-follower consensus control of Lipschitz nonlinear systems by output feedback

This paper deals with the leader-follower consensus problem of Lipschitz nonlinear systems under fixed directed communication networks. Both state and output feedback control are proposed based on state and output measurements of neighbouring agents, respectively. Laplacian matrix features are explored for the stability analysis, and the sufficient conditions are derived to solve the consensus problem. Finally, simulation results are included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the output-based consensus controller.     

Synchronisation of complex dynamical networks with additive stochastic time-varying delays

In this letter, a class of complex dynamical networks with additive stochastic time-varying delays is investigated. Two kinds of delays in complex dynamical networks are taken into consideration, one is called the nodes-induced delay in this paper, and the other is the network-induced delay. Both of the delays are assumed to obey different stochastic distributions. By utilising a novel Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional and stochastic analysis techniques, a sufficient criterion is obtained in the form of linear matrix inequalities to ensure the synchronisation of the complex dynamical networks. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Distributed robust finite-time nonlinear consensus protocols for multi-agent systems

This paper investigates the robust finite-time consensus problem of multi-agent systems in networks with undirected topology. Global nonlinear consensus protocols augmented with a variable structure are constructed with the aid of Lyapunov functions for each single-integrator agent dynamics in the presence of external disturbances. In particular, it is shown that the finite settling time of the proposed general framework for robust consensus design is upper bounded for any initial condition. This makes it possible for network consensus problems to design and estimate the convergence time offline for a multi-agent team with a given undirected information flow. Finally, simulation results are presented to demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of our finite-time protocols.     

Distributed supervisory control of discrete-event systems with communication delay

This paper identifies a property of delay-robustness in distributed supervisory control of discrete-event systems (DES) with communication delays. In previous work a distributed supervisory control problem has been investigated on the assumption that inter-agent communications take place with negligible delay. From an applications viewpoint it is desirable to relax this constraint and identify communicating distributed controllers which are delay-robust, namely logically equivalent to their delay-free counterparts. For this we introduce inter-agent channels modeled as 2-state automata, compute the overall system behavior, and present an effective computational test for delay-robustness. From the test it typically results that the given delay-free distributed control is delay-robust with respect to certain communicated events, but not for all, thus distinguishing events which are not delay-critical from those that are. The approach is illustrated by a workcell model with three communicating agents.     

Robust discrete-time set-based adaptive predictive control for nonlinear systems

The problem of robust adaptive predictive control for a class of discrete-time nonlinear systems is considered. First, a parameter estimation technique, based on an uncertainty set estimation, is formulated. This technique is able to provide robust performance for nonlinear systems subject to exogenous variables. Second, an adaptive MPC is developed to use the uncertainty estimation in a framework of min–max robust control. A Lipschitz-based approach, which provides a conservative approximation for the min–max problem, is used to solve the control problem, retaining the computational complexity of nominal MPC formulations and the robustness of the min–max approach. Finally, the set-based estimation algorithm and the robust predictive controller are successfully applied in two case studies. The first one is the control of anonisothermal CSTR governed by the van de Vusse reaction. Concentration and temperature regulation is considered with the simultaneous estimation of the frequency (or pre-exponential) factors of the Arrhenius equation. In the second example, a biomedical model for chemotherapy control is simulated using control actions provided by the proposed algorithm. The methods for estimation and control were tested using different disturbances scenarios.