Robust adaptive tracking control for a class of mechanical systems with unknown disturbances under actuator saturation

A robust adaptive tracking control scheme is presented for a class of multiple‐input and multiple‐output mechanical systems with unknown disturbances under actuator saturation. The unknown disturbances are expressed as the outputs of a linear exogenous system with unknown coefficient matrices. An adaptive disturbance observer is constructed for the online disturbance estimation. An actuator saturation compensator is introduced to attenuate the adverse effects of actuator saturation. The adaptive backstepping method is then applied to design the robust adaptive tracking control law. It is proved that the designed control law makes the system outputs track the desired trajectories and guarantees the global uniform ultimate stability of the closed‐loop control system. Simulations on a two‐link robotic manipulator verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.     

Robust Tracking Control Of The Variable Stiffness Actuator Based On The Lever Mechanism

This paper is concerned with the design of a robust adaptive tracking control scheme for a class of variable stiffness actuators (VSAs) based on the lever mechanisms. For these VSAs based on the lever mechanisms, the AwAS‐II developed at Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) is chosen as the study object, and it is an enhanced version of the original realization AwAS (actuator with adjustable stiffness). Firstly, for the dynamic model of the AwAS‐II system in the presence of parametric uncertainties, unknown bounded friction torques, unknown bounded external disturbance and input saturation constraints, by using the coordinate transformations and the static state feedback linearization, the state space model of the AwAS‐II system with composite disturbances and input saturation constraints is transformed into an uncertain multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) linear system with lumped disturbances and input saturation constraints. Subsequently, a combination of the feedback linearization, disturbance observer, sliding mode control and adaptive input saturation compensation law is adopted for the design of the robust tracking controller that simultaneously regulates the position and stiffness of the AwAS‐II system. Under the proposed controller, the semi‐global uniformly ultimately bounded stability of the closed‐loop system has been proved via Lyapunov stability analysis. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness and the robustness of the proposed robust adaptive tracking control scheme.     

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.     

Command filtered path tracking control of saturated ASVs based on time‐varying disturbance observer

This paper investigates the path‐tracking control problem for an autonomous surface vessel (ASV) with unknown time‐varying disturbances and input saturation. A robust nonlinear control law is proposed based on a disturbance observer and an auxiliary system in the context of command filtered control. The disturbance observer is constructed to estimate the unknown time‐varying disturbances, the auxiliary dynamic system is employed to handle input saturation, and the compensator based command filtered control technique makes the designed path‐tracking control law simple and easy to implement in practice. It is proved that the nonlinear control law can track the desired vessel's position and heading, while guaranteeing the uniform ultimate boundedness of all signals in the path‐tracking control system. Simulation results further demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.     

Distributed finite‐time formation control for multiple quadrotors via local communications

This paper investigates finite‐time formation tracking control problem for multiple quadrotors with external disturbance. The states of the virtual leader are not available to all the followers and the network topology is described by a directed graph. The model of each quadrotor is divided into position subsystem and attitude subsystem. Firstly, novel distributed finite‐time state observers are designed to estimate the relative state errors between followers and the virtual leader. Secondly, the values of these observers are used to design controllers that achieve finite‐time robust coordinated tracking in the position subsystem. Thirdly, the terminal sliding mode disturbance observers and finite‐time attitude tracking controllers are proposed, respectively, in the attitude subsystem to estimate the external disturbance and achieve attitude tracking control. The finite‐time stability analysis of the control algorithms is carried out using the Lyapunov theory and the homogeneous technique. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed algorithm is illustrated by numerical simulations.     

Adaptive disturbance estimation and cancelation for ships under thruster saturation

This work addresses the problem of disturbance estimation and cancelation for ships with ocean disturbances and modeling uncertainties under thruster saturation effects. The ocean disturbances are expressed as the multiple sinusoidal disturbances with unknown frequencies, amplitudes, and phases. By means of a parametric exogenous system and a canonical model with unknown disturbances being inputs, the ocean disturbances are represented as the multivariate regression model with unavailable regressors and regression parameters. An observer is employed to provide the regressor estimation, such that the disturbance estimation and cancelation are converted to the adaptive control problem. The robust control term with the adaptive technique attenuates the modeling uncertainties. The thruster saturation effects are reduced using the state vectors from the auxiliary dynamic filter to online correct the control errors. The ship disturbance cancelation controller is derived via the adaptive backstepping. The closed‐loop tracking system is guaranteed to be uniformly ultimately stable and the ship's position and heading navigate along with desired trajectories. The proposed adaptive control scheme is validated by simulations with comparisons on a 1:70 scaled model ship CyberShip II in different cases.     

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.     

Robust Tracking Control of Uncertain MIMO Nonlinear Systems with Application to UAVs

In this paper, we consider the robust adaptive tracking control of uncertain multi-input and multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear systems with input saturation and unknown external disturbance. The nonlinear disturbance observer (NDO) is employed to tackle the system uncertainty as well as the external disturbance. To handle the input saturation, an auxiliary system is constructed as a saturation compensator. By using the backstepping technique and the dynamic surface method, a robust adaptive tracking control scheme is developed. The closed-loop system is proved to be uniformly ultimately bounded thorough Lyapunov stability analysis. Simulation results with application to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed robust control scheme.      

Barrier function based finite-time tracking control for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with input saturation

In this article, a novel robust finite-time tracking control scheme is proposed for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems subject to the model uncertainty, external disturbance, and input saturation. A barrier function based disturbance observer (BFDO) with finite-time convergence performance is developed to estimate the non-smooth nonlinear compound disturbance, which includes the uncertainty, disturbance of system and input saturation. In addition, an adaptive continuous nonsingular terminal sliding mode controller, based on the barrier function and the estimate of the BFDO is developed. The Lyapunov stability and finite-time convergence of the proposed control scheme are proved. The effectiveness and performance advantage of the proposed control scheme is demonstrated by numerical simulations and comparison with existing works.     

可反馈线性化系统的鲁棒自适应容错控制设计

针对存在不确定执行器故障和未知不匹配干扰的可反馈线性化非线性系统, 提出一种鲁棒自适应容错控 制策略. 首先分别给出系统输入和扰动关于系统输出的相对阶, 针对两种相对阶之间的不同关系设计鲁棒控制器, 抑制干扰对系统输出的影响; 然后针对各故障情况分别设计容错控制器; 最后将各控制器进行融合得到一个综合 故障补偿控制器, 从而有效解决故障模式、类型、大小、时间和外界干扰等多重不确定性, 保证闭环系统稳定和渐近 输出跟踪性能. 仿真结果验证了所设计控制方案的可行性与有效性.     

基于干扰观测器的一类不确定仿射非线性系统有限时间收敛backstepping控制

针对一类不确定仿射非线性系统的跟踪控制问题,提出一种基于干扰观测器的有限时间收敛backstepping控制方法.为增强小脑模型(CMAC)泛化和学习能力,将非对称高斯函数和模糊理论相结合,给出非对称模糊CMAC结构,设计干扰观测器实现系统未知复合干扰在线准确逼近;基于非对称模糊CMAC干扰观测器,给出有限时间收敛backstepping控制器设计步骤,利用Lyapunov稳定理论证明闭环系统稳定性,其中采用非线性微分器获取虚拟控制量滤波和微分信息以避免backstepping设计中的微分“膨胀问题”,设计辅助系统修正因微分器带来的误差对系统跟踪性能影响,引入基于障碍型函数的自适应滑模鲁棒项抑制复合干扰估计偏差对跟踪误差的影响;将所提方法应用于无人机飞行控制仿真实验,结果表明所提方法的有效性.     

时滞的非完整动力学系统滑模抗干扰跟踪控制

针对具有外部扰动和时滞的非完整轮式移动机器人系统,本文阐述了一种基于非线性扰动观测器的时滞滑模控制方法.首先,利用扰动观测器估计系统的外部扰动;然后,用极坐标转化移动机器人的姿态,并用计算转矩法对机器人的动力学方程进行反馈线性化.设计带时滞控制的滑模,目的是使移动机器人渐近稳定在期望轨迹上,并有效地减小控制增益的过高估计.最后,利用李雅普诺夫函数建立闭环系统的稳定性.仿真结果表明,该方案具有良好的跟踪精度和鲁棒性.     

交流伺服电机速度与位置环的一体化鲁棒控制

提出一种交流伺服系统的离散域复合控制方案,可实现在未知负载条件下的准确位置控制。基于永磁同步电机伺服系统中位置与速度环组成的数学模型,以电机转角位置作为系统的测量反馈信号,设计一个降阶线性扩展状态观测器对电机转速（未量测）和未知负载扰动加以估计,并用于反馈控制和扰动补偿。采用TMS320F2812DSP在一台实际的永磁同步电机上进行了实验测试,结果表明伺服系统能在未知负载情况下实现平稳和准确的目标位置跟踪,且对负载和参数差异具有较好的鲁棒性。这种控制方案可方便地应用于相关的伺服系统。     

A robust optimal sliding‐mode control approach for magnetic levitation systems

This paper presents a robust optimal sliding‐mode control approach for position tracking of a magnetic levitation system. First, a linear model that represents the nonlinear dynamics of the magnetic levitation system is derived by the feedback linearization technique. Then, the robust optimal sliding‐mode control developed from the linear model is proposed. In the proposed control scheme, the integral sliding‐mode control with robust optimal approach is developed to achieve the features of high performance in position tracking response and robustness to the matched and unmatched uncertainties. Simulation and experimental results from the computer‐controlled magnetic levitation system are illustrated to show the validity of the proposed control approach for practical applications. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

Robust estimation‐free decentralized prescribed performance control of nonaffine nonlinear large‐scale systems

In this paper, a low‐complexity robust estimation‐free decentralized prescribed performance control scheme is proposed and analyzed for nonaffine nonlinear large‐scale systems in the presence of unknown nonlinearity and external disturbance. To tackle the high‐order dynamics of each tracking error subsystem, a time‐varying stable manifold involving the output tracking error and its high‐order derivatives is constructed, which is strictly evolved within the envelope of user‐specialized prescribed performance. Sequentially, a robust decentralized controller is devised for each manifold, under which the output tracking error and its high‐order derivatives are proven to converge asymptotically to a small residual domain with prescribed fast convergence rate. Additionally, no specialized approximation technique, adaptive scheme, and disturbance observer are needed, which alleviates the complexity and difficulty of robust decentralized controller design dramatically. Finally, 3 groups of illustrative examples are used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed low‐complexity robust decentralized control scheme for uncertain nonaffine nonlinear large‐scale systems.     

基于滑模干扰观测器的直流电机系统复合控制

随着直流电机设备在农林业、制造工业和航空航天领域应用得越来越广泛,实际工程对其性能的要求也越来越高。针对直流电机系统控制中面临的建模误差、参数摄动以及摩擦力矩干扰问题,提出一种滑模干扰观测器(SMDOB,sliding mode disturbance observer),其输出可作为控制系统中干扰补偿的设计依据。基于所设计的内环SMDOB,并利用不变性原理,提出一种外环复合控制方案,从而实现直流电机系统的位置跟踪能力。仿真结果表明,相比传统的控制方案,该控制方案下电机系统的跟踪性能更好,对建模误差、参数摄动以及摩擦力矩干扰的鲁棒性更高。而且,该控制方案的结构较为简单,易于工程实现。     

Sliding Mode Disturbance Observer‐based Motion Control for a Piezoelectric Actuator‐based Surgical Device

This paper presents a sliding mode disturbance observer‐based motion tracking control methodology. In particular, the methodology is applied to control a semi‐automated hand‐held ear surgical device for the treatment of otitis media with effusion. The proposed control methodology is utilised to deal with the undesirable effects in the motion system, such as non‐linear dynamics, parametric uncertainties and external disturbances. It employs a proportional‐derivative control scheme together with a sliding mode disturbance observer for rejecting the undesirable effects. The stability of the proposed control methodology is proven theoretically and its effectiveness is evaluated experimentally. In addition, promising motion tracking experimental results are shown, and it can be observed that the proposed approach offers more robust performance for controlling the hand‐held surgical device and other similar instruments.     

Trajectory tracking control for manned submersible system with disturbances via disturbance characterization index approach

This paper investigates a novel disturbance estimation and characterization‐based robust control scheme of the manned submersible in the presence of external disturbances and model uncertainties. First of all, a finite‐time disturbance observer is designed to estimate the lumped disturbances of the manned submersible system. Then, a novel disturbance characterization index is defined via Lyapunov theory to indicate whether the lumped disturbances harm or benefit the manned submersible system. The control law is developed via the disturbance characterization–based backstepping control (DCB‐BC) method to remove the detrimental disturbances and to keep the beneficial disturbances of the manned submersible. Additionally, the rigorous stability analysis is given based on Lyapunov theory. Furthermore, some simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed DCB‐BC method. The key novelty of this paper is that the disturbances are explicitly used in the controller design to achieve better control performance and disturbance rejection capability.     

Adaptive fault tolerant control for a class of uncertain fractional‐order systems based on disturbance observer

In this paper, a class of fractional‐order nonlinear systems are considered in the presence of actuator faults. A novel fault tolerant control scheme based on disturbance observer has been presented, where the actuator faults are considered as the system disturbance and can be approximated by the proposed disturbance observer. The developed fault tolerant control guarantees the convergence of the closed‐loop system and the output tracking performance. Finally, a simulation example is presented to verify the effectiveness of the new method.     

Robust Missile Autopilots With Finite‐Time Convergence

This paper presents a new longitudinal autopilot to address the finite‐time tracking problem for uncertain agile missiles. The proposed autopilot is essentially a composite control scheme, which is obtained through the finite‐time control methodology and the nonlinear disturbance observer (NDOB) approach. The key idea in this scheme is that the NDOB is adopted to estimate the aerodynamic uncertainties and external disturbances in an integrated manner. With the aid of the finite‐time bounded function and the Lyapunov function method, the finite‐time stability of the closed‐loop system is established, which shows that the angle‐of‐attack response will converge to the external command signal in finite time. Numerical simulation results are presented to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheme.