Finite-time Prescribed Performance Time-Varying Formation Control for Second-Order Multi-Agent Systems With Non-Strict Feedback Based on a Neural Network Observer

This paper studies the problem of time-varying formation control with finite-time prescribed performance for nonstrict feedback second-order multi-agent systems with unmeasured states and unknown nonlinearities.To eliminate nonlinearities,neural networks are applied to approximate the inherent dynamics of the system.In addition,due to the limitations of the actual working conditions,each follower agent can only obtain the locally measurable partial state information of the leader agent.To address this problem,a neural network state observer based on the leader state information is designed.Then,a finite-time prescribed performance adaptive output feedback control strategy is proposed by restricting the sliding mode surface to a prescribed region,which ensures that the closed-loop system has practical finite-time stability and that formation errors of the multi-agent systems converge to the prescribed performance bound in finite time.Finally,a numerical simulation is provided to demonstrate the practicality and effectiveness of the developed algorithm.

Contact detumbling toward a nutating target through deformable effectors and prescribed performance controller

Detumbling operation toward a rotating target with nutation is meaningful for debris removal but challenging. In this study, a deformable end-effector is first designed based on the requirements for contacting the nutating target. A dual-arm robotic system installed with the deformable end-effectors is modeled and the movement of the end-tips is analyzed. The complex operation of the contact toward a nutating target places strict requirements on control accuracy and controller robustness. Thus, an improvement of the tracking error transformation is proposed and an adaptive sliding mode controller with prescribed performance is designed to guarantee the fast and precise motion of the effector during the contact detumbling.Finally, by employing the proposed effector and the controller,numerical simulations are carried out to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the contact detumbling toward a nutating target.

Practical prescribed-time tracking control for uncertain strict-feedback systems with guaranteed performance under unknown control directions

In this paper,we consider the practical prescribed-time performance guaranteed tracking control problem for a class of uncertain strict-feedback systems subject to unknown control direction.Due to the existence of unknown nonlinearities and uncertainties,it is challenging to design a controller that can ensure the stability of closed-loop system within a predetermined finite time while maintaining the specified transient performance.The underlying problem becomes further complex as the control directions are unknown.To deal with the above problems,a special translation function as well as Nussbaum type function are introduced in the prescribed performance control(PPC)framework.Finally,a PPC as well as preset finite time tracking control scheme is designed,and its effectiveness is confirmed by both theoretical analysis and numerical simulation.

Event-based performance guaranteed tracking control for constrained nonlinear system via adaptive dynamic programming method

An optimal tracking control problem for a class of nonlinear systems with guaranteed performance and asymmetric input constraints is discussed in this paper.The control policy is implemented by adaptive dynamic programming(ADP)algorithm under two event-based triggering mechanisms.It is often challenging to design an optimal control law due to the system deviation caused by asymmetric input constraints.First,a prescribed performance control technique is employed to guarantee the tracking errors within predetermined boundaries.Subsequently,considering the asymmetric input constraints,a discounted non-quadratic cost function is introduced.Moreover,in order to reduce controller updates,an event-triggered control law is developed for ADP algorithm.After that,to further simplify the complexity of controller design,this work is extended to a self-triggered case for relaxing the need for continuous signal monitoring by hardware devices.By employing the Lyapunov method,the uniform ultimate boundedness of all signals is proved to be guaranteed.Finally,a simulation example on a mass–spring–damper system subject to asymmetric input constraints is provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

Multivariable Control Performance Assessment Based on Generalized Minimum Variance Benchmark

This paper is concerned with the control performance assessment based on the multivariable generalized minimum variance benchmark.An explicit expression for the feedback controller-invariant(the generalized minimum variance)term of the multivariable control system is obtained,which is used as a standard benchmark for the assessment of the control performance for multi input multi output(MIMO)process.The proposed approach is based on the multivariable minimum variance benchmark.In comparison with the minimum variance benchmark, the developed method is more reasonable and practical for the control performance assessment of multivariable systems.The approach is illustrated by a simulation example and an industrial application.

Influence of Design Margin on Operation Optimization and Control Performance of Chemical Processes

Operation optimization is an effective method to explore potential economic benefits for existing plants. The m.aximum potential benefit from operationoptimization is determined by the distances between current operating point and process constraints, which is related to the margins of design variables. Because of various ciisturbances in chemical processes, some distances must be reserved for fluctuations of process variables and the optimum operating point is not on some process constraints. Thus the benefit of steady-state optimization can not be fully achied（ed while that of dynamic optimization can be really achieved. In this study, the steady-state optimizationand dynamic optimization are used, and the potential benefit-is divided into achievable benefit for profit and unachievable benefit for control. The fluid catalytic cracking unit （FCCU） is used for case study. With the analysis on how the margins of design variables influence the economic benefit and control performance, the bottlenecks of process design are found and appropriate control structure can be selected.

Advances in Compact Manufacturing for Shape and Performance Controllability of Large-scale Components-A Review

Research on compact manufacturing technology for shape and performance controllability of metallic components can reanze the simplification and high-reliability of manufacturing process on the premise of satisfying the requirement of macro/micro-structure. It is not only the key paths in improving performance, saving material and energy, and green manufacturing of components used in major equipments, but also the challenging subjects in frontiers of advanced plastic forming. To provide a novel horizon for the manufacturing in the critical components is significant. Focused on the high-performance large-scale components such as bearing rings, flanges, railway wheels, thick-walled pipes, etc, the conventional processes and their developing situations are summarized. The existing problems including multi-pass heating, wasting material and energy, high cost and high-emission are discussed, and the present study unable to meet the manufacturing in high-quality components is also pointed out. Thus, the new techniques related to casting-rolling compound precise forming of rings, compact manufacturing for duplex-metal composite rings, compact manufacturing for railway wheels, and casting-extruding continuous forming of thick-walled pipes are introduced in detail, respectively. The corresponding research contents, such as casting ring blank, hot ring rolling, near solid-state pressure forming, hot extruding, are elaborated. Some findings in through-thickness microstructure evolution and mechanical properties are also presented. The components produced by the new techniques are mainly characterized by fine and homogeneous grains. Moreover, the possible directions for fin＇ther development of those techniques are suggested. Finally, the key scientific problems are first proposed. All of these results and conclusions have reference value and guiding significance for the integrated control of shape and performance in advanced compact manufacturing.

Uncertainty in the seismic performance of semi-active base isolation systems

In a conventional base isolation system,minimizing the seismic responses of the superstructure is always at the cost of increasing the isolator's response.The semi-active control of the isolator has been considered an effective solution to such a dilemma.It tunes the real-time properties of the isolator according to preset rules to further reduce the superstructure's seismic responses without increasing that of the isolator or vice versa.However,the number of ground motion records used to design and validate the controller,i.e.,the preset rules,in existing studies is usually very small and therefore is suspectable if it is adequate to address the significant uncertainty in the shaking of future earthquakes.This paper critically reviews the performance of the proportional-integralderivative(PID),linear-quadratic regulator(LQR),and fuzzy controllers in semi-active base isolation systems with magnetorheological(MR)dampers subjected to highly uncertain ground motion inputs through numerical simulations.The results show that the control performance of the controllers varies significantly with the increasing number of input records,suggesting the necessity of using at least 50 ground motion records to appropriately assess the performance uncertainty of semi-active base isolation systems.More importantly,the superior performance of the optimized controllers is not guaranteed if the system is subjected to ground motions that are new to the controller,even if the controller has been optimized for thousands of existing ground motions.It highlights the need of improving the adaptability of the semi-active systems for uncertain ground motion inputs.

PID-type fault-tolerant prescribed performance control of fixed-wing UAV

This paper introduces a fault-tolerant control(FTC)design for a faulty fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV).To constrain tracking errors against actuator faults,error constraint inequalities are first transformed to a new set of variables based on prescribed performance functions.Then,the commonly used and powerful proportional-integral-derivative(PID)control concept is employed to filter the transformed error variables.To handle the fault-induced nonlinear terms,a composite learning algorithm consisting of neural network and disturbance observer is incorporated for increasing flight safety.It is shown by Lyapunov stability analysis that the tracking errors are strictly constrained within the specified error bounds.Experimental results are presented to verify the feasibility of the developed FTC scheme.

Direct Yaw Moment Control for Distributed Drive Electric Vehicle Handling Performance Improvement

For a distributed drive electric vehicle（DDEV） driven by four in-wheel motors, advanced vehicle dynamic control methods can be realized easily because motors can be controlled independently, quickly and precisely. And direct yaw-moment control（DYC） has been widely studied and applied to vehicle stability control. Good vehicle handling performance： quick yaw rate transient response, small overshoot, high steady yaw rate gain, etc, is required by drivers under normal conditions, which is less concerned, however. Based on the hierarchical control methodology, a novel control system using direct yaw moment control for improving handling performance of a distributed drive electric vehicle especially under normal driving conditions has been proposed. The upper-loop control system consists of two parts： a state feedback controller, which aims to realize the ideal transient response of yaw rate, with a vehicle sideslip angle observer; and a steering wheel angle feedforward controller designed to achieve a desired yaw rate steady gain. Under the restriction of the effect of poles and zeros in the closed-loop transfer function on the system response and the capacity of in-wheel motors, the integrated time and absolute error（ITAE） function is utilized as the cost function in the optimal control to calculate the ideal eigen frequency and damper coefficient of the system and obtain optimal feedback matrix and feedforward matrix. Simulations and experiments with a DDEV under multiple maneuvers are carried out and show the effectiveness of the proposed method： yaw rate rising time is reduced, steady yaw rate gain is increased, vehicle steering characteristic is close to neutral steer and drivers burdens are also reduced. The control system improves vehicle handling performance under normal conditions in both transient and steady response. State feedback control instead of model following control is introduced in the control system so that the sense of control intervention to drivers is relieved.

Guaranteed control performance robust LQG regulator for discrete-time Markovian jump systems with uncertain noise

Robust LQG problems of discrete-time Markovian jump systems with uncertain noises are investigated. The problem addressed is the construction of perturbation upper bounds on the uncertain noise covariances so as to guarantee that the deviation of the control performance remains within the precision prescribed in actual problems. Furthermore, this regulator is capable of minimizing the worst performance in an uncertain case. A numerical example is exploited to show the validity of the method.

Preparation and Absorption/Desorption Performance of Gypsum-based Humidity Controlling Materials

Absorption/desorption properties of some humidity controlling materials which contain gypsum as basic cement materials and activated Sepiolite powder as humidity controlling media were tested. The kinetics curve of moisture adsorption/desorption were drawn and humidity controlling performance in nature environment was verified. The experimental results show that moisture absorption/desorption rates are increased, and the speed is also accelerated. These materials, which can adjust environmental humidity effectively, are new ones with good humidity controlling performance.

Hellinger distance based probability distribution approach to performance monitoring of nonlinear control systems

Control performance monitoring has attracted great attention in both academia and industry over the past two decades. However, most research efforts have been devoted to the performance monitoring of linear control systems, without considering the pervasive nonlinearities(e.g. valve stiction) present in most industrial control systems. In this work, a novel probability distribution distance based index is proposed to monitor the performance of non-linear control systems. The proposed method uses Hellinger distance to evaluate change of control system performance. Several simulation examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Assessment of Model Predictive Control Performance Criteria

The current highly competitive environment has driven industries to operate with increasingly restricted profit margins. Thus, it is imperative to optimize production processes. Faced with this scenario, multivariable predictive control of processes has been presented as a powerful alternative to achieve these goals. Moreover, the rationale for implementation of advanced control and subsequent analysis of its post-match performance also focus on the benefits that this tool brings to the plant. It is therefore essential to establish a methodology for analysis, based on clear and measurable criteria. Currently, there are different methodologies available in the market to assist with such analysis. These tools can have a quantitative or qualitative focus. The aim of this study is to evaluate three of the best current main performance assessment technologies： Minimum Variance Control-Harris Index; Statistical Process Control （Cp and Cpk）; and the Qin and Yu Index. These indexes were studied for an alumina plant controlled by three MPC （model predictive control） algorithms （GPC （generalized predictive control）, RMPCT （robust multivariable predictive control technology） and ESSMPC （extended state space model predictive controller）） with different results.

Randomized Algorithms for Probabilistic Optimal Robust Performance Controller Design

Polynomial-time randomized algorithms were constructed to approximately solve optimal robust performance controller design problems in probabilistic sense and the rigorous mathematical justification of the approach was given. The randomized algorithms here were based on a property from statistical learning theory known as (uniform) convergence of empirical means (UCEM). It is argued that in order to assess the performance of a controller as the plant varies over a pre-specified family, it is better to use the average performance of the controller as the objective function to be optimized, rather than its worst-case performance. The approach is illustrated to be efficient through an example.

Preparation and performance of fluorescent polyacrylamide microspheres as a profile control and tracer agent

Polyacrylamide microspheres have been suc- cessfully used to reduce water production in reservoirs, but it is impossible to distinguish polyacrylamide microspheres from polyacrylamide that is used to enhance oil recovery and is already present in production fluids. In order to detect polyacrylamide microspheres in the reservoir pro- duced fluid, fluorescent polyacrylamide microspheres P（AM-BA-AMCO）, which fluoresce under ultraviolet irradiation, were synthesized via an inverse suspension polymerization. In order to keep the particle size distribu- tion in a narrow range, the synthesis conditions of the polymerization were studied, including the stirring speed and the concentrations of initiator, NaaCO3, and dispersant. The bonding characteristics of microspheres were deter- mined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The surface morphology of these microspheres was observed under ultraviolet irradiation with an inverse fluorescence microscope. A laboratory evaluation test showed that the fluorescent polymer microspheres had good water swelling capability, thus they had the ability to plug and migrate in a sand pack. The plugging rate was 99.8 % and the residual resistance coefficient was 800 after microsphere treatment in the sand pack. Furthermore, the fluorescent microspheres and their fragments were accurately detected under ultra- violet irradiation in the produced fluid, even though theyhad experienced extrusion and deformation in the sand pack.

Interaction of Units and Research Methods of Control Performances of Distributed Manufacturing Information System

In order to analyze the function demand of the distributed manufacturing information system as well as its control demand, and eliminate information ambiguity among system units to integrate semantics, the abstract Agent model and computational structure of each unit was presented based on flexible coupling automata. The autonomy of each unit was investigated in this foundation. The system unit was described using the Web Ontology Language (OWL) ontology. And the system semantics was also integrated. On these basics the communication among the system units was analyzed with an example of interaction between a machine and a warehouse. The control performances of information system units were investigated using Boolean matrix as a substitute for traditional process in RW theory, which reduced the computational complexity. This work established the foundation for the demand analysis, design and development of the distributed manufacture information system.

Control performance monitoring and advanced control towards energy conservation

High performance control of an interactive process such as iron and steel plant relies on ability to honor safety and operational constraints;reduce the standard deviations of variables that need to be controlled(e.g.product quantity,quality );de-bottlenecking the process;and,maximize profitability or lower cost(e.g.energy savings, improve hot metal content).These objectives may be prioritized in this order,but can vary and are very difficult to achieve optimally through conventional control.A multivariable predictive controller solution,along with its extensive inferential sensor and built-in optimizer,provides online closed loop control and optimization for many interactive metal and mining processes to lower the energy cost,increase throughput,and optimize product quality and yield. Control loop performance is also a key factor to improve iron and steel plant automation and operation result; Honeywell CPM offers vender-independent product which provides monitoring,tuning,modeling of control loop and sustainable loop performance analysis and maintenance solution towards operation stability and energy saving.

Performance analysis of a class of networked control systems under data rate constraints

In networked control system (NCS) where control loop is closed over communication network, limited data rate may deteriorate control performance even destabilize the control system. In this paper, performance analysis of a typical second-order control system with data rate constraints is conducted, and the concept of critical data rate (CDR) is presented. In order to find the CDR in NCS, an approximate searching method is proposed to guarantee acceptable control performance.

Experimental analysis on adjusting performance of vapor-liquid two-phase flow controller

The vapor-liquid self-adjusting controller is an innovative automatic regulating valve.In order to ensure adjusted objects run safely and economically,the controller automatically adjusts the liquid flux to keep liquid level at a required level according to physical properties of vapor-liquid two-phase fluid.The adjusting mechanics,the controller’s performance and influencing factors of its stability have been analyzed in this paper.The theoretical analysis and successful applications have demonstrated this controller can keep the liquid level steady with good performance.The actual application in industry has shown that the controller can satisfactorily meet the requirement of industrial production and has wide application areas.