Supervisory control based on minimal cuts and Petri net sub-controllers coordination

This paper addresses the synthesis of Petri net (PN) controller for the forbidden state transition problem with a new utilisation of the theory of regions. Moreover, as any method of control synthesis based on a reachability graph, the theory of regions suffers from the combinatorial explosion problem. The proposed work minimises the number of equations in the linear system of theory of regions and therefore one can reduce the computation time. In this paper, two different approaches are proposed to select minimal cuts in the reachability graph in order to synthesise a PN controller. Thanks to a switch from one cut to another, one can activate and deactivate the corresponding?PNcontroller. An application is implemented in a flexible manufacturing system to illustrate the present method. Finally, comparison with previous works with experimental results in obtaining a maximally permissive controller is presented.     

Finite-time consensus of time-varying nonlinear multi-agent systems

This paper investigates the problem of leader–follower finite-time consensus for a class of time-varying nonlinear multi-agent systems. The dynamics of each agent is assumed to be represented by a strict feedback nonlinear system, where nonlinearities satisfy Lipschitz growth conditions with time-varying gains. The main design procedure is outlined as follows. First, it is shown that the leader–follower consensus problem is equivalent to a conventional control problem of multi-variable high-dimension systems. Second, by introducing a state transformation, the control problem is converted into the construction problem of two dynamic equations. Third, based on the Lyapunov stability theorem, the global finite-time stability of the closed-loop control system is proved, and the finite-time consensus of the concerned multi-agent systems is thus guaranteed. An example is given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed consensus protocol algorithm.     

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.     

Simultaneous fault detection and control for switched systems with actuator faults

This paper is concerned with the fault detection and control problem for discrete-time switched systems. The actuator faults, especially ‘outage cases’, are considered. The detector/controller is designed simultaneously such that the closed-loop system switches under an average dwell time, and when a fault is detected, an alarm is generated and then the controller is switched to allow the norm of the states of the subsystem to increase within the acceptable limits. Thus, a switching strategy which combines average dwell time switching with event-driven switching is proposed. Under this switching strategy, the attention is focused on designing the detector/controller such that estimation errors between residual signals and faults are minimised for the fulfillment of fault detection objectives; simultaneously, the closed-loop system becomes asymptotically stable for the fulfillment of control objectives. A two-step procedure is adopted to obtain the solutions through satisfying a set of linear matrix inequalities. An example comprising of three cases is considered. Through these cases, it is demonstrated that the fault detection and control for switched systems using a two-stage switching strategy and asynchronous switching are feasible.     

Adaptive fuzzy control with smooth inverse for nonlinear systems preceded by non-symmetric dead-zone

In this study, the adaptive output feedback control problem of a class of nonlinear systems preceded by non-symmetric dead-zone is considered. To cope with the possible control signal chattering phenomenon which is caused by non-smooth dead-zone inverse, a new smooth inverse is proposed for non-symmetric dead-zone compensation. For the systematic design procedure of the adaptive fuzzy control algorithm, we combine the backstepping technique and small-gain approach. The Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy logic systems are used to approximate unknown system nonlinearities. The closed-loop stability is studied by using small gain theorem and the closed-loop system is proved to be semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded. Simulation results indicate that, compared to the algorithm with the non-smooth inverse, the proposed control strategy can achieve better tracking performance and the chattering phenomenon can be avoided effectively.     

Condition-based diagnosis of mechatronic systems using a fractional calculus approach

While fractional calculus (FC) is as old as integer calculus, its application has been mainly restricted to mathematics. However, many real systems are better described using FC equations than with integer models. FC is a suitable tool for describing systems characterised by their fractal nature, long-term memory and chaotic behaviour. It is a promising methodology for failure analysis and modelling, since the behaviour of a failing system depends on factors that increase the model’s complexity. This paper explores the proficiency of FC in modelling complex behaviour by tuning only a few parameters. This work proposes a novel two-step strategy for diagnosis, first modelling common failure conditions and, second, by comparing these models with real machine signals and using the difference to feed a computational classifier. Our proposal is validated using an electrical motor coupled with a mechanical gear reducer.     

Sliding mode control for multi-agent systems under a time-varying topology

This paper addresses the tracking problem of a class of multi-agent systems under uncertain communication environments which has been modelled by a finite number of constant Laplacian matrices together with their corresponding scheduling functions. Sliding mode control method is applied to solve this nonlinear tracking problem under a time-varying topology. The controller of each tracking agent has been designed by using only its own and neighbours’ information. Sufficient conditions for the existence of a sliding mode control tracking strategy have been provided by the solvability of linear matrix inequalities. At the end of this work, numerical simulations are employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed sliding mode control tracking strategy.     

Adaptive ILC algorithms of nonlinear continuous systems with non-parametric uncertainties for non-repetitive trajectory tracking

In this article, two adaptive iterative learning control (ILC) algorithms are presented for nonlinear continuous systems with non-parametric uncertainties. Unlike general ILC techniques, the proposed adaptive ILC algorithms allow that both the initial error at each iteration and the reference trajectory are iteration-varying in the ILC process, and can achieve non-repetitive trajectory tracking beyond a small initial time interval. Compared to the neural network or fuzzy system-based adaptive ILC schemes and the classical ILC methods, in which the number of iterative variables is generally larger than or equal to the number of control inputs, the first adaptive ILC algorithm proposed in this paper uses just two iterative variables, while the second even uses a single iterative variable provided that some bound information on system dynamics is known. As a result, the memory space in real-time ILC implementations is greatly reduced.     

Fuzzy distributed cooperative tracking for a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles with heterogeneous goals

This article proposes a systematic analysis for a tracking problem which ensures cooperation amongst a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), modelled as nonlinear systems with linear and angular velocity constraints, in order to achieve different goals. A distributed Takagi–Sugeno (TS) framework design is adopted for the representation of the nonlinear model of the dynamics of the UAVs. The distributed control law which is introduced is composed of both node and network level information. Firstly, feedback gains are synthesised using a parallel distributed compensation (PDC) control law structure, for a collection of isolated UAVs; ignoring communications among the swarm. Then secondly, based on an alternation-like procedure, the resulting feedback gains are used to determine Lyapunov matrices which are utilised at network level to incorporate into the control law, the relative differences in the states of the vehicles, and to induce cooperative behaviour. Eventually stability is guaranteed for the entire swarm. The control synthesis is performed using tools from linear control theory: in particular the design criteria are posed as linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). An example based on a UAV tracking scenario is included to outline the efficacy of the approach.