Design and implementation of a block‐backstepping based tracking control for nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot

This paper presents formulation of a novel block‐backstepping based control algorithm to overcome the challenges posed by the tracking and the stabilization problem for a differential drive wheeled mobile robot (WMR). At first, a two‐dimensional output vector for the WMR has been defined in such a manner that it would decouple the two control inputs and, thereby, allow the designer to formulate the control laws for the two inputs one at a time. Actually, the decoupling has been carried out in a way to convert the system into block‐strict feedback form. Thereafter, block‐backstepping control algorithm has been utilized to derive the expressions of the control inputs for the WMR system. The proposed block‐backstepping technique has further been enriched by incorporating an integral action for enhancing the steady state performance of the overall system. Global asymptotic stability of the overall system has been analyzed using Lyapunov stability criteria. Finally, the proposed control algorithm has been implemented on a laboratory scale differential drive WMR to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control law in real‐time environment. Indeed, the proposed design approach is novel in the sense that it has judiciously exploited the nonholonomic constraint of the WMR to result in a reduced order block‐backstepping controller for the WMR, and thereby, it has eventually yielded a compact expression of the control law that is amenable to real‐time implementation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive chatter mitigation control for machining processes with input saturations

Chatter is an unstable nonlinear dynamical phenomenon often encountered in machining operations because of the self‐excitation mechanism, which may lead to overcut or rapid tool wear, and hence, greatly influence the surface quality and productivity in milling operations. Recent years have witnessed an increasing industrial demand of high quality and high efficiency machining. This paper hereby develops a constrained active adaptive control method to mitigate the chatter dynamics with input saturations. To guarantee the feasibility of the proposed approach, moderate stable conditions of the closed‐loop system are afterwards derived by using the LaSalle–Yoshizawa theorem as well. Finally, numerical simulations are conducted to show the substantially enlarged stable region in the Lobe Diagram. Thus, the method can be expected to improve the efficiency of milling processes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Controller design and analysis for singularly perturbed switched systems with actuator saturation

This paper investigates the problems of controller design and stability analysis for singularly perturbed switched systems subject to actuator saturation. A set of well‐defined sufficient conditions for the existence of state feedback controllers is proposed, under which the closed‐loop system is locally asymptotically stable for arbitrary switching law as long as the singular perturbation parameter is sufficiently small. With the obtained controller, the estimation problem of stability bound and basin of attraction of the closed‐loop system is reduced to solving a convex optimization problem. A numerical example and a hydraulic servo position system are used to illustrate the obtained results. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive actuator failure compensation for multivariable feedback linearizable systems

A feedback linearization‐based adaptive control scheme is developed for multivariable nonlinear systems with redundant actuators subject to uncertain failures. Such an adaptive controller contains a direct adaptive actuator failure compensator to compensate the uncertain actuator failure, a nonlinear feedback to linearize the nonlinear dynamics, and a linear feedback to stabilize the linearized system. The key new design feature is the estimation of both the failure patterns and the failure values, for direct adaptive actuator failure compensation, newly developed for multivariable feedback linearizable nonlinear systems. With direct control signal adaptation, the adaptive failure compensation design ensures closed‐loop stability and asymptotic output tracking in the presence of actuator failure uncertainties. Simulation results from an application to attitude control of a near‐space vehicle dynamic model are presented to verify the desired system performance with adaptive actuator failure compensation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stability Margin Determination of Linear Discrete‐Time Systems Described By Fuzzy Convex Sets Uncertainty

This paper proposes a new method for determining the stability margin of uncertain linear discrete‐time systems with uncertainty described by fuzzy convex sets. Nonsymmetrical triangular membership functions describing the uncertainty of characteristic polynomial coefficients are considered. This method is based on transformation of the uncertain discrete systems to the continuous time area and generalization of Kharitonov theorem for determining the uncommon minimum confidence level that guarantees stability of the system.     

基于ESO的BTT导弹自动驾驶仪滑模反演设计

针对BTT导弹非线性动力学模型中的参数不确定性及系统存在未知外部干扰的问题,提出了一种基于扩张状态观测器的反演滑模控制设计方法。将系统参数不确定性和未知外界干扰作为系统的复合干扰,采用扩张状态观测器估计系统的复合干扰,并实时补偿。利用Lyapunov方法证明系统的稳定性。设计的控制器算法简单、计算量小,更易于实际工程应用。仿真结果表明,设计的控制器对导弹控制系统受到的复合干扰具有较强的鲁棒性和稳定性,满足导弹姿态快速机动和高稳定度的控制要求,性能指标明显优于滑模反演控制器。     

Input‐output triggered control using ‐stability over finite horizons

This paper investigates stability of nonlinear control systems under intermittent information. Following recent results in the literature, we replace the traditional periodic paradigm, where the up‐to‐date information is transmitted and control laws are executed in a periodic fashion, with the event‐triggered paradigm. Building on the small gain theorem, we develop input–output triggered control algorithms yielding stable closed‐loop systems. In other words, based on the currently available (but outdated) measurements of the outputs and external inputs of a plant, a mechanism triggering when to obtain new measurements and update the control inputs is provided. Depending on the noise in the environment, the developed algorithm yields stable, asymptotically stable, and ‐stable (with bias) closed‐loop systems. Control loops are modeled as interconnections of hybrid systems for which novel results on ‐stability are presented. The prediction of a triggering event is achieved by employing ‐gains over a finite horizon. By resorting to convex programming, a method to compute ‐gains over a finite horizon is devised. Finally, our approach is successfully applied to a trajectory tracking problem for unicycles. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An analysis of the exponential stability of linear stochastic neutral delay systems

This paper is concerned with the analysis of the mean square exponential stability and the almost sure exponential stability of linear stochastic neutral delay systems. A general stability result on the mean square and almost sure exponential stability of such systems is established. Based on this stability result, the delay partitioning technique is adopted to obtain a delay‐dependent stability condition in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). In obtaining these LMIs, some basic rules of the Ito calculus are also utilized to introduce slack matrices so as to further reduce conservatism. Some numerical examples borrowed from the literature are used to show that, as the number of the partitioning intervals increases, the allowable delay determined by the proposed LMI condition approaches h_max, the maximal allowable delay for the stability of the considered system, indicating the effectiveness of the proposed stability analysis. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exponential stability of stochastic singular delay systems with general Markovian switchings

In recent years, Markovian jump systems have received much attention. However, there are very few results on the stability of stochastic singular systems with Markovian switching. In this paper, the discussed system is the stochastic singular delay system with general transition rate matrix in terms of uncertain and partially unknown transition rate matrix. The aim is to answer the question whether there are conditions guaranteeing the underlying system having a unique solution and being exponentially admissible simultaneously. The proposed results show that all the features of the underlying system such as time delay, diffusion, and general Markovian switchings play important roles in the system analysis of exponential admissibility. A numerical example is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Target point‐based path‐following controller for a car‐type vehicle using bounded controls

In this paper, we have studied the control problem of target point‐based path following for car‐type vehicles. This special path‐following task arises from the needs of vision‐based guidance systems, where a given target point located ahead of the vehicle, in the visual range of the camera, must follow a specified path. A solution to this problem is developed through a nonlinear transformation of the path‐following problem into a reference trajectory tracking problem, by modeling the target point as a virtual vehicle. The use of target point complicates the control problem, as the development produces a first‐order nonlinear nonglobally Lipschitz differential equation with finite escape time. This problem is solved by using small control signals. Bounded feedback laws are designed to control the real vehicle's angular acceleration and the virtual vehicle's velocity, to achieve stability. The resulting controller is globally asymptotically stable with respect to the origin, the proof of which is derived from Lyapunov‐based arguments and a bootstrap argument. It is also shown that the use of exponentially convergent observers/differentiators does not affect the stability of the closed‐loop system. The effectiveness of this controller has been illustrated through simulations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.