Hybrid observer design for linear switched system via Differential Petri Nets

The aim of this paper is to propose a hybrid observer design for linear switched systems modelled either via Differential Petri Nets (DPN) or via Timed Differential Petri Nets (TDPN). The switched systems, herein, considered are characterized by switching laws that can depend on the continuous states or on both of a given dwell time and the continuous states. In addition, the structure of the proposed observers is based on a discrete observer and a continuous observer on interaction. The discrete observer reconstructs the discrete mode, by estimating both of the discrete marking and the firing vector. Once, the active mode is obtained, the continuous states are estimated. Finally, the outputs of the continuous observer are used to update the marking and the firing vector. At the end of the paper, several simulation results are presented to illustrate the proposed approach.     

On the fluidization of Petri nets and marking homothecy

The analysis of Discrete Event Dynamic Systems suffers from the well known state explosion problem. A classical technique to overcome it is to relax the behavior by partially removing the integrality constraints and thus to deal with hybrid or continuous systems. In the Petri nets framework, continuous net systems (technically hybrid systems) are the result of removing the integrality constraint in the firing of transitions. This relaxation may highly reduce the complexity of analysis techniques but may not preserve important properties of the original system. This paper deals with the basic operation of fluidization. More precisely, it aims at establishing conditions that a discrete system must satisfy so that a given property is preserved by the continuous relaxation. These conditions will be mainly based on the marking homothetic behavior of the system. The focus will be on logical properties as boundedness, B-fairness, deadlock-freeness, liveness and reversibility. Furthermore, testing homothetic monotonicity of some properties in the discrete systems is also studied, as well as techniques to improve the quality of the fluid relaxation by removing spurious solutions.     

Observability of Nonlinear Systems

We consider the observability of systems of the form = Ax +Nx, y = Fx, where A is a linear operator and N and F are nonlinear.We show that if the system is linearized about an equilibriumpoint x_e and the linearized system is continuously initiallyobservable, then the nonlinear system is continuously initiallyobservable in some neighbourhood of x_e. We then look at conditionsunder which solutions of the nonlinear system can be extendedfor all time and consider the problem of stabilizing the systemby feedback controls such that the solutions are eventuallyin the observability neighbourhood of x_e. Finally, we applythese ideas to two systems: a wave equation and a diffusionequation with nonlinear perturbations and nonlinear observations.     

Some sufficient conditions for the observability of nonlinear systems

Some sufficient conditions are presented for the observability of systems described by nonlinear, ordinary differential equations with linear observations. The point which the authors especially emphasize is the fact that the results obtained are global in some sense. In the beginning, the observability problem is reduced to the uniqueness problem of solutions of some nonlinear integral equations for general nonlinear systems with linear observations. Then, for some restricted systems, a simple sufficient condition is derived. The relation between global and local observability for nonlinear systems is also considered.The authors wish to thank their colleagues in Nagoya University.     

About the stochastic and continuous Petri nets equivalence in the long run

Reliability analysis is often based on stochastic discrete event models like stochastic Petri nets (SPNs). For large dynamical systems with numerous components, the analytical expression of the SPNs steady state is full of complexities because of the combinatory explosion with discrete models. Moreover, the estimation of mean markings thanks to simulations is time consuming in case of rare events. For these reasons, Petri net fluidification may be an interesting alternative to provide a reasonable estimate of the asymptotic behavior of stochastic processes. Unfortunately, the steady states of SPNs and timed continuous Petri nets (contPNs) with the same structure, same initial marking and same firing rates are mainly often different. The region of SPN steady states (when firing rates are defined in a polyhedral area) contrasts with that of contPN ones. The purpose of this paper is to illuminate this issue in taking advantage of the piecewise-affine hybrid structure of contPNs. Regions and critical regions are defined in the marking space in order to characterize this structure. Based on this characterization, the main contribution is to propose a transformation of the considered SPN into a contPN with the same structure, modified firing rates and homothetic initial marking so that the corrected contPN converges partially to the same mean marking than the SPN. Consequently, a global understanding of an SPN steady state can be obtained according to the corrected contPN.     

基于奇偶校验的Petri网控制器的故障检测

提出基于奇偶校验的方法对Petri网控制器进行故障检测.设计出满足包含标识向量和Parikh向量的线性约束的Petri网控制器;建立一个包含一定数量库所的附加Petri网控制器以满足奇偶校验的编码要求;分别针对库所故障和变迁故障,选用不同的奇偶校验参数进行故障检测,并通过实例详细阐明了故障检测的过程.     

Homothecy,bifurcations, continuity and monotonicity in timed continuous Petri nets under infinite server semantics

This work studies how equilibrium markings and throughputs change in Timed Continuous Petri Net (TCPN) systems as transition firing rates vary. In particular, it analyzes the bifurcations of the former, and the discontinuities and non-monotonicities of the latter; specifically, using structural objects of the net, such as P-semiflows, T-semiflows, and configurations, among others, the following properties can be obtained. For Join Free TCPN systems, a sufficient structural condition guaranteeing that the equilibrium markings do not bifurcate when firing rates vary, is derived. A dual result is obtained for Choice Free TCPN systems. For Mono-T-Semiflow TCPN systems, the equilibrium throughput is investigated; using a time-scale (a homothetic) property it is proven that a discontinuity of the equilibrium throughput implies its non-monotonicity, even if not evident at first glance. This is a connection of two timed behavioral properties of the equilibrium throughput. Moreover, a sufficient structural condition, parametrized by the equilibrium markings, ensures its continuity under firing rate variations. It is also proven that the monotonicity of the equilibrium throughput can be characterized by the previous structural condition. The convergence of the marking evolution of TCPN systems to its equilibrium markings is also discussed.     

Constrained regulation of continuous Petri nets

This paper deals with constrained regulation of continuous Petri nets under the so-called infinite servers semantics. Our aim is to design feedback gains that permit us to reach both desired stationary marking vector and desired asymptotic firing rate vector. The proposed approach takes into account constraints on the control, the marking of the Petri net, and the stability of the closed-loop system. The existence of a solution is first expressed geometrically, in terms of the inclusion of two polyhedral sets. They are reformulated algebraically as linear matrix inequalities, which provides an effective way to calculate feedback gains answering the problem. Finally, an application to an assembly production system is given.     

Mathematical programming approach to the Petri nets reachability problem

This paper focuses on the resolution of the reachability problem in Petri nets, using the mathematical programming paradigm. The proposed approach is based on an implicit traversal of the Petri net reachability graph. This is done by constructing a unique sequence of Steps that represents exactly the total behaviour of the net. We propose several formulations based on integer and/or binary linear programming, and the corresponding sets of adjustments to the particular class of problem considered. Our models are validated on a set of benchmarks and compared with standard approaches from IA and Petri nets community.     

How the choice of the observable may influence the analysis of nonlinear dynamical systems

A great number of techniques developed for studying nonlinear dynamical systems start with the embedding, in a d-dimensional space, of a scalar time series, lying on an m-dimensional object, d > m. In general, the main results reached at are valid regardless of the observable chosen. In a number of practical situations, however, the choice of the observable does influence our ability to extract dynamical information from the embedded attractor. This may arise in standard problems in nonlinear dynamics such as model building, control theory and synchronization. To some degree, ease of success will thus depend on the choice of observable simply because it is related to the observability of the dynamics. Investigating the Rössler system, we show that the observability matrix is related to the map between the original phase space and the differential embedding induced by the observable. This paper investigates a form for the observability matrix for nonlinear system which is more general than the previous one used. The problem of controllability is also mentioned.     

Robust stabilization for uncertain switched impulsive control systems with state delay: An LMI approach

This paper deals with the problem of robust H_∞ state feedback stabilization for uncertain switched linear systems with state delay. The system under consideration involves time delay in the state, parameter uncertainties and nonlinear uncertainties. The parameter uncertainties are norm-bounded time-varying uncertainties which enter all the state matrices. The nonlinear uncertainties meet with the linear growth condition. In addition, the impulsive behavior is introduced into the given switched system, which results a novel class of hybrid and switched systems called switched impulsive control systems. Using the switched Lyapunov function approach, some sufficient conditions are developed to ensure the globally robust asymptotic stability and robust H_∞ disturbance attenuation performance in terms of certain linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Not only the robustly stabilizing state feedback H_∞ controller and impulsive controller, but also the stabilizing switching law can be constructed by using the corresponding feasible solution to the LMIs. Finally, the effectiveness of the algorithms is illustrated with an example.     

Gain-scheduled fault detection on stochastic nonlinear systems with partially known transition jump rates

In this paper, the problem of continuous gain-scheduled fault detection (FD) is studied for a class of stochastic nonlinear systems which possesses partially known jump rates. Initially, by using gradient linearization approach, the nonlinear stochastic system is described by a series of linear jump models at some selected working points. Subsequently, observer-based residual generator is constructed for each jump linear system. Then, a new observer-design method is proposed for each re-constructed system to design H_∞ observers that minimize the influences of the disturbances, and to formulate a new performance index that increase the sensitivity to faults. Finally, continuous gain-scheduled approach is employed to design continuous FD observers on the whole nonlinear stochastic system. Simulation example is given to show the effectiveness and potential of the developed techniques.     

Symmetries in timed continuous Petri nets

The dynamics of timed continuous Petri nets under infinite server semantics can be expressed in terms of a piecewise linear system with polyhedral regions. In this article, Petri nets with symmetries are considered where symmetry is understood as a permutation symmetry of the nodes. We establish connections between the qualitative dynamical behavior of the continuous marking and the symmetries. In particular, it is shown that such a symmetry leads to a permutation of the regions and to equivariant dynamics. This allows us to identify special flow-invariant sets which can be used for reductions to systems of smaller dimension. For general piecewise linear systems with polyhedral regions, it is shown that equivariant dynamics always implies a permutation of the regions.     

Observability of the discrete state for dynamical piecewise hybrid systems

In this paper, we deal with the observability of piecewise-affine hybrid systems. Our aim is to give sufficient conditions to observe the discrete and continuous states, in terms of algebraic and geometrical conditions. Firstly, we will give the algebraic conditions to observe the discrete state based on the switch function reconstruction for linear hybrid systems. Secondly, we will give a geometrical condition based on the transversality concept for nonlinear hybrid systems. Throughout this paper, we illustrate our propositions with examples and simulations.     

Stability of Classes of Mappings and Holder Continuity of Higher Derivatives of Elliptic Solutions to Systems of Nonlinear Differential Equations

Nirenberg published the following well-known result in 1954: Let a function z be a twice continuously differentiable solution to a nonlinear second-order elliptic equation. Suppose that the function F defining the equation is continuous and has continuous first-order partial derivatives with respect to all of its arguments (i.e., independent together with z and the symbols of all first- and second-order partial derivatives of z). Then the partial derivatives of z are locally Holder continuous. Simultaneously with Nirenberg, Morrey obtained an analogous result for elliptic systems of second-order nonlinear equations. In this article, we get the same result for the higher derivatives of elliptic solutions to systems of nonlinear partial differential equations of arbitrary order and a rather general shape. The proof is based on the results of the author's recent research on the study of the stability phenomena in the C ^l-norm of classes of mappings.     

SimHPN: A MATLAB toolbox for simulation, analysis and design with hybrid Petri nets

This paper presents a MATLAB embedded package for hybrid Petri nets called SimHPN. It offers a collection of tools devoted to simulation, analysis and synthesis of dynamical systems modeled by hybrid Petri nets. The package supports several server semantics for the firing of both, discrete and continuous, types of transitions. Besides providing different simulation options, SimHPN offers the possibility of computing steady state throughput bounds for continuous nets. For such a class of nets, optimal control and observability algorithms are also implemented. The package is fully integrated in MATLAB which allows the creation of powerful algebraic, statistical and graphical instruments that exploit the routines available in MATLAB.     

Observability analysis and model formulation for nonlinear state estimation

A suitable design of state estimators for advanced control requires a detailed and representative mathematical model for capturing the nonlinear process behavior. The system observability, i.e. when the set of measurements provides enough information to estimate all the system states, is not a premise of the derivation of the Kalman filter. However, this propriety can improve the state estimator performance. On the basis of these design tasks, we outline a state estimation tuning strategy for different model formulations and present an algorithm to select the smallest number of measured variables to guarantee the system observability. The Williams–Otto semi-batch reactor was selected as case study, since its model formulation can be represented by two different set of states: (a) a mass basis states set and (b) a mass fraction basis states set. While the process-noise covariance matrix Q in the state estimator can be a diagonal and constant for the first model formulation, the matrix Q is not diagonal and time-varying for the second one due to their highly correlated states. Our results have shown how to convert the tuning matrices between different state definitions so that similar estimation results can be achieved.     

Complete observability of differential-algebraic systems with delays

We study the statement and solvability of complete observability problems for linear stationary differential-algebraic dynamical systems with delays (DAD systems. Since in the general case, the state space of such systems is infinite-dimensional and is not necessarily “minimal,” we consider various statements of problems depending on what states are observed. Our attention is focused on the simplest DAD system in symmetric form. We obtain efficient parametric criteria and analyze relationships between various notions of complete observability for DAD systems. In the case of DAD systems with scalar coefficients, we obtain a complete classification of notions of complete observability in the class of continuous initial functions with the continuous matching condition. We analyze the problem of computing the minimum number of outputs of a spectrally observable DAD system.