Optimal LMI‐based state feedback stabilizer for uncertain nonlinear systems with time‐Varying uncertainties and disturbances

This article presents a nonlinear state feedback stabilizer using linear matrix inequalities for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with Lipschitz nonlinearities. The proposed controller improves the transient performance and steady state accuracy simultaneously. To improve the stabilization performance, a nonlinear function is included in the control law and is optimally tuned using a modified random search algorithm. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the offered method. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 356–362, 2016     

Real-coded genetic algorithm for system identification and controller tuning

This paper presents an application of real-coded genetic algorithm (RGA) for system identification and controller tuning in process plants. The genetic algorithm is applied sequentially for system identification and controller tuning. First GA is applied to identify the changes in system parameters. Once the process parameters are identified, the optimal controller parameters are identified using GA. In the proposed genetic algorithm, the optimization variables are represented as floating point numbers. Also, cross over and mutation operators that can directly deal with the floating point numbers are used. The proposed approach has been applied for system identification and controller tuning in nonlinear pH process. The simulation results show that the GA based approach is effective in identifying the parameters of the system and the nonlinearity at various operating points in the nonlinear system.     

Design of a robust tracker and disturbance attenuator for uncertain systems with time delays

This article considers the composite nonlinear feedback control method for robust tracker and disturbance attenuator design of uncertain systems with time delays. The proposed robust tracker improves the transient performance and steady state accuracy simultaneously. The asymptotic robust tracking conditions are provided in the form of linear matrix inequalities and the resultant conditions yield the controller gains. Moreover, to improve the reference tracking performance, a new nonlinear function for the composite feedback control law is offered. Simulation results are presented to verify the theoretical results. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 340–348, 2015     

A new hybrid algorithm based on optimal fuzzy controller in multimachine power system

In this article, a new methodology based on fuzzy proportional‐integral‐derivative (PID) controller is proposed to damp low frequency oscillation in multimachine power system where the parameters of proposed controller are optimized offline automatically by hybrid genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) techniques. This newly proposed method is more efficient because it cope with oscillations and different operating points. In this strategy, the controller is tuned online from the knowledge base and fuzzy interference. In the proposed method, for achieving the desired level of robust performance exact tuning of rule base and membership functions (MF) are very important. The motivation for using the GA and PSO as a hybrid method are to reduce fuzzy effort and take large parametric uncertainties in to account. This newly developed control strategy mixed the advantage of GA and PSO techniques to optimally tune the rule base and MF parameters of fuzzy controller that leads to a flexible controller with simple structure while is easy to implement. The proposed method is tested on three machine nine buses and 16 machine power systems with different operating conditions in present of disturbance and nonlinearity. The effectiveness of proposed controller is compared with robust PSS that tune using PSO and the fuzzy controller which is optimized rule base by GA through figure of demerit and integral of the time multiplied absolute value of the error performance indices. The results evaluation shows that the proposed method achieves good robust performance for a wide range of load change in the presents of disturbance and system nonlinearities and is superior to the other controllers. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 78–93, 2015     

Feedback control optimization of nonlinear systems under random excitations

This paper uses stochastic averaging method to design an optimal feedback control for nonlinear stochastic systems. The method of stochastic averaging is used to reduce the dimension of the state space and to derive the Itô stochastic differential equation for the response amplitude process. Two approaches to optimization, namely, with the exact steady state probability density function of the amplitude process and the Rayleigh approximation are compared. The cost function is a steady state response measure. Numerical examples are studied to demonstrate the performance of the control both in transient and steady-state. The effect of the control on the system response and control performance is studied. The regions where the controls are conservative and unconservative are pointed out.     

Nonlinear sliding surface based second order sliding mode controller for uncertain linear systems

A second order sliding mode (SOSM) controller using nonlinear sliding surface is proposed in this paper. The aim of the proposed controller is to guarantee stability as well as enhance the transient performance of uncertain linear systems with parametric uncertainty. The nonlinear sliding surface consists of a linear term and a nonlinear term. The linear term comprises a gain matrix which has a very low value of damping ratio and thereby facilitates fast response. The nonlinear term is introduced to accommodate a variable damping ratio to reduce overshoot and settling time of the closed loop system as the output reaches nearer the desired reference position. A major gain of the proposed SOSM controller is the elimination of chattering in the control input. The proposed nonlinear sliding surface based SOSM controller achieves fast rise, low overshoot and low settling time. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed SOSM controller.     

Nonlinear dynamics of a simplified engine-propeller system

This paper presents a procedure for studying dynamical behaviors of a simplified engine-propeller dynamical system consisting of a number of bodies of plane motions. The equation of motion of the complex system is obtained using the Lagrange equation and solved numerically using the 4th order Runge–Kutta method. Various simulations were performed to investigate the transient and steady state behaviors of the multiple body system while taking into consideration the engine pressure pulsations, nonlinear inertia of moving bodies, and nonlinear aerodynamic load. Sub-harmonics and super harmonics in the steady state responses for different power and propeller pitch settings are obtained using the fast Fourier transform. Numerical simulations indicate that the 1.5 order is the dominant order of harmonics in the steady state oscillatory motion of the crankshaft. The findings and procedure presented in the paper are useful to the aerospace industry in certifying reciprocating engines and propellers. The crankshaft oscillatory velocities obtained from the simplified rigid body model are in good agreement with the experimental data for a SAITO-450 engine and a SOLO propeller at a 6″ pitch setting.     

Observer design for some classes of uniformly observable nonlinear hybrid systems

This paper deals with the synthesis of high gain observers for uniformly observable nonlinear hybrid systems. First, the single output-case is treated and then an extension is made to a particular class of multi-output hybrid systems. In effect, a high gain observer is proposed allowing the estimation of both the continuous states and the discrete location of the system. This is done by using techniques borrowed from the area of model-based fault detection whereby observers are employed for residual generation. Simulation results on a tank process are given in order to highlight the performances of the proposed observer.     

Observer design for some classes of uniformly observable nonlinear hybrid systems

This paper deals with the synthesis of high gain observers for uniformly observable nonlinear hybrid systems. First, the single output-case is treated and then an extension is made to a particular class of multi-output hybrid systems. In effect, a high gain observer is proposed allowing the estimation of both the continuous states and the discrete location of the system. This is done by using techniques borrowed from the area of model-based fault detection whereby observers are employed for residual generation. Simulation results on a tank process are given in order to highlight the performances of the proposed observer.     

Design of a nonsingular adaptive fuzzy backstepping controller for electrostatically actuated microplates

This paper adopts some alternative strategies to design a nonlinear controller for double electrostatically actuated microplates. The novel design is carried out to solve the singularity problem reported in many articles due to the use of the Taylor expansion to simplify the electrostatic force. The nonlinear governing partial differential equation is converted to the modal equation using the Galerkin method. Then, based on the Lyapunov stability criterion, a fuzzy backstepping controller facilitated by prescribed performance functions is applied to the non-affine system to extend the travel range beyond the pull-in region and capture the structural and nonstructural uncertainties that exist in the practical systems. The present work also aims to bring satisfactory transient and steady-state performance indices to the system. Moreover, unknown time-varying delays as the indispensable part of practical systems are considered in the proposed control scheme to suppress the delays occurring in the measurement of the states by constructing Lyapunov–Krasovskii function. The accuracy of the modal equation in both the static and dynamic analysis is verified through a meshless method as a direct solution of the partial differential equation. The proposed controller guarantees that all the closed-loop signals are semi-globally, uniformly ultimately bounded, and the error evolves within the decaying prescribed bounds. Finally, the proposed controller demonstrates its feasibility to extend the travel range within and beyond the pull-in range despite the unknown uncertainties and time-varying delays which exist in the system.     

Stability performance for primary frequency regulation of hydro-turbine governing system with surge tank

This paper aims to study the stability for primary frequency regulation of hydro-turbine governing system with surge tank. Firstly, a novel nonlinear mathematical model of hydro-turbine governing system considering the nonlinear characteristic of penstock head loss is introduced. The nonlinear state equations under opening control mode and power control mode are derived. Then, the nonlinear dynamic performance of nonlinear hydro-turbine governing system is investigated based on the stable domain for primary frequency regulation. New feature of the nonlinear hydro-turbine governing system caused by the nonlinear characteristic of penstock head loss is described by comparing with a linear model, and the effect mechanism of nonlinear characteristic of penstock head loss is revealed. Finally, the concept of critical stable sectional area of surge tank for primary frequency regulation is proposed and the analytical solution is derived. The combined tuning and optimization method of governor parameters and sectional area of surge tank is proposed. The results indicate that for the primary frequency regulation under opening control mode and power control mode, the nonlinear hydro-turbine governing system is absolutely stable and conditionally stable, respectively. The stability of the nonlinear hydro-turbine governing system and linear hydro-turbine governing system is the same under opening control model and different under power control model. The nonlinear characteristic of penstock head loss mainly affects the initial stage of dynamic response process of power output, and then changes the stability of the nonlinear system. The critical stable sectional area of surge tank makes the system reach critical stable state. The governor parameters and critical stable sectional area of surge tank jointly determine the distributions of stability states.     

Development,design and experimental testing of fuzzy-based controllers for a laboratory scale sun-tracking heliostat

The objective of this study is to develop and design fuzzy-based controllers for experimental examination and application to a laboratory scale sun tracking heliostat with dynamic movement about azimuth and elevation axes. The experimental approach accounts for unknown parameters such as, nonlinear static and dynamic frictions, nonlinear and variant effect of gravity on system, magnetic saturation of motors, limitations of power source in supplying rush and steady current and variation in heliostat dynamics due to different spacial and time passing conditions. To meet the objective, a classical PI and PID as well as Fuzzy-PI (F-PI) and Fuzzy-PID (F-PID) controllers are designed and experimentally implemented. The performance of each controller is measured by means of evaluating a cost function that is based on the integral of absolute value of error signal. The results show that for azimuth-axis angle, the cost of F-PI controller for deviation from set point is 67% lower as compared with that of PI controller. Also, it is shown that the application of F-PI controller results in lower cost for elevation-axis angle by 36%, 40%, and 50%, when compared with PI, PID, and F-PID controllers, respectively.     

Hardware-in-the-loop experimental study on a fractional order networked control system testbed

Networked Control Systems (NCS) are of great interest in many industries because of their convenience in data sharing and manipulation remotely. However, there are several problems along with NCS itself due to the uncertainties in network communication. One issue inherent to NCS is the network-induced delays which may deteriorate the performance and may even cause instability of the system. Therefore a controller which can make the plant stable at large values of delay is always desirable in NCS systems. Our past work on Optimal Fractional Order Proportional Integral (OFOPI) controller showed that fractional order PI controllers have larger jitter margin (maximum value of delay for which system is stable) for lag-dominated systems when compared to traditional Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controllers, whereas integer order PID controllers have larger jitter margin for delay-dominated systems. This paper aims at the design process of a tele-presence controller based on OFOPI tuning rules. To illustrate this, an extensive experimental study on the real-time Smart Wheel networked speed control system is performed using hardware-in-the-loop control. The real-time random delay in the world wide network is collected by pinging different locations, and is considered as the delay in our simulation and experimental systems. Comparisons are made with existing integer order PID controller. It is found that the proposed OFOPI controller is a promising controller and has faster response time than the traditional integer order PID controllers. Since the plant into consideration viz. the Smart Wheel is a delay-dominated system, it is verified that PID achieves larger jitter margin as compared to OFOPI tuning rules. Simulation results and real-time experiments showing comparisons between OFOPI and OPID tuning rules prove the significance of this method in NCS.     

Composite nonlinear feedback based discrete integral sliding mode controller for uncertain systems

In this paper, a discrete integral sliding mode (ISM) controller based on composite nonlinear feedback (CNF) method is proposed. The aim of the controller is to improve the transient performance of uncertain systems. The CNF based discrete ISM controller consists of a linear and a nonlinear term. The linear control law is used to decrease the damping ratio of the closed-loop system for yielding a quick transient response. The nonlinear feedback control law is used to increase the damping ratio with an aim to reduce the overshoot of the closed-loop system as it approaches the desired reference position. It is observed that the discrete CNF-ISM controller produces superior transient performance as compared to the discrete ISM controller. The closed-loop control system remains stable during the sliding condition. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.     

Control and synchronize a novel hyperchaotic system

The control and hybrid projective synchronization (HPS) strategies for a novel hyperchaotic system are investigated. Firstly, the novel hyperchaotic system is controlled to the unsteady equilibrium point or limit cycle via only one scalar controller which includes two state variables. Secondly, based on Lyapunov’s direct method HPS between two novel hyperchaotic systems is studied. A new nonlinear feedback vector controller is designed to guarantee HPS, which can be simplified ulteriorly into a single scalar controller to achieve complete synchronization between two novel hyperchaotic systems. Finally, numerical simulations are given to verify the effectiveness of these strategies. The proposed methods have certain significances for reducing the cost and complexity for controller implementation.     

Dynamic feedback control for cycle slipping in a phase-controlled system

This paper concerns the problem of cycle slipping for continuous phase-controlled systems with periodic nonlinearity. The number of slipped cycles is an important property in the transient mode of such nonlinear systems. On the basis of the Yakubovich–Kalman lemma, linear matrix inequality (LMI) characterizations are derived for the number of slipped cycles of such systems and an efficient way of estimating the number is proposed by solving a generalized eigenvalue minimization problem. Furthermore, by virtue of these results, a dynamic output feedback controller is designed to guarantee the nonexistence of cycle slipping. As a result, the transient performance of phase-controlled system is improved. A concrete application to the phase-locked loop shows the applicability and validity of the proposed approach.     

A new nonlinear blind source separation method with chaos indicators for decoupling diagnosis of hybrid failures: A marine propulsion gearbox case with a large speed variation

The normal operation of propulsion gearboxes ensures the ship safety. Chaos indicators could efficiently indicate the state change of the gearboxes. However, accurate detection of gearbox hybrid faults using Chaos indicators is a challenging task and the detection under speed variation conditions is attracting considerable attentions. Literature review suggests that the gearbox vibration is a kind of nonlinear mixture of variant vibration sources and the blind source separation (BSS) is reported to be a promising technique for fault vibration analysis, but very limited work has addressed the nonlinear BSS approach for hybrid faults decoupling diagnosis. Aiming to enhance the fault detection performance of Chaos indicators, this work presents a new nonlinear BSS algorithm for gearbox hybrid faults detection under a speed variation condition. This new method appropriately introduces the kernel spectral regression (KSR) framework into the morphological component analysis (MCA). The original vibration data are projected into the reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) where the instinct nonlinear structure in the original data can be linearized by KSR. Thus the MCA is able to deal with nonlinear BSS in the KSR space. Reliable hybrid faults decoupling is then achieved by this new nonlinear MCA (NMCA). Subsequently, by calculating the Chaos indicators of the decoupled fault components and comparing them with benchmarks, the hybrid faults can be precisely identified. Two specially designed case studies were implemented to evaluate the proposed NMCA-Chaos method on hybrid gear faults decoupling diagnosis. The performance of the NMCA-Chaos was compared with state of art techniques. The analysis results show high performance of the proposed method on hybrid faults detection in a marine propulsion gearbox with large speed variations.     

机会维修策略下的系统可用度分析

机会维修是针对多部件系统提出的一类新的维修策略,主要解决部件间存在经济相关性的问题.利用更新过程理论建立了机会维修策略下的系统模型,并给出了系统瞬态和稳态可用度的求解方法.通过分析比较可知,利用更新过程稳态下的某些特性,可以不必求解更新方程而比较简便地求解系统稳态可用度.     

Hybrid differential transform and finite difference method to solve the nonlinear heat conduction problem

In this paper, the differential transform is employed to discuss the behaviors of nonlinear heat conduction problem. A hybrid method of differential transform and finite difference approach is proposed to solve the transient responses of a nonlinear heat conduction problem. Different parameters of the equation and boundary conditions are considered to verify the feasibility of the proposed method to such problems. Simulation results are illustrated and discussed in comparison with the linear case. The results show that the hybrid method can achieve good results for such problems.     

Chaos control in passive walking dynamics of a compass-gait model

The compass-gait walker is a two-degree-of-freedom biped that can walk passively and steadily down an incline without any actuation. The mathematical model of the walking dynamics is represented by an impulsive hybrid nonlinear model. It is capable of displaying cyclic motions and chaos. In this paper, we propose a new approach to controlling chaos cropped up from the passive dynamic walking of the compass-gait model. The proposed technique is to linearize the nonlinear model around a desired passive hybrid limit cycle. Then, we show that the nonlinear model is transformed to an impulsive hybrid linear model with a controlled jump. Basing on the linearized model, we derive an analytical expression of a constrained controlled Poincaré map. We present a method for the numerical simulation of this constrained map where bifurcation diagrams are plotted. Relying on these diagrams, we show that the linear model is fairly close to the nonlinear one. Using the linearized controlled Poincaré map, we design a state feedback controller in order to stabilize the fixed point of the Poincaré map. We show that this controller is very efficient for the control of chaos for the original nonlinear model.