Ill-conditioned stable inversion arising from singularly perturbed zero dynamics

The ill-conditioned stable inversion is studied for slightly nonminimum phase systems whose zero dynam- ics is singularly perturbed, that is, the relative degree is ill-defined. For these systems, we show that there exists an inherent limitation in the bandwidth of a reference trajectory to be tracked when a well-conditioned feedforward input via stable inversion is sought. We assert that, when the violation of this limitation occurs, the so-called reference trajectory redesign is called for. Our analysis results can provide an explicit assessment as well as useful guidance for the reference trajectory redesign if needed.

Precise Decoupling Tracking of Airspeed and Altitude for UAV Based on Causal Solution of Stable Inversion

Use stable inversion to accomplish precise decoupling tracking of airspeed and altitude for conventional takeoff and landing of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is in essence a non-minimum phase output tracking problem. The main contribution of this article is that a new method to calculate the causal solution of stable inversion is proposed by introducing a well defined perturbed signal to the system’s unstable internal dynamics. It is helpful to overcome the pitfalls resulting from non-causality in existin...

Nonlinear inversion-based output tracking control of a boiler-turbine unit

The capability to perform fast load-following has been an important issue in the power industry. An output tracking control system of a boiler-turbine unit is developed. The system is composed of stable inversion and feedback controller. The stable inversion is implemented as a feedforward controller to improve the load-following capability, and the feedback controller is utilized to guarantee the stability and robustness of the whole system. Loop-shaping H∞ method is used to design the feedback controller and the final controller is reduced to a multivariable PI form. The output tracking control system takes account of the multivariable, nonlinear and coupling behavior of boiler-turbine system, and the simulation tests show that the control system works well and can be widely applied.

Docking control for probe-drogue refueling: An additive-state-decomposition-based output feedback iterative learning control method

Designing a controller for the docking maneuver in Probe-Drogue Refueling(PDR) is an important but challenging task, due to the complex system model and the high precision requirement.In order to overcome the disadvantage of only feedback control, a feedforward control scheme known as Iterative Learning Control(ILC) is adopted in this paper.First, Additive State Decomposition(ASD) is used to address the tight coupling of input saturation, nonlinearity and the property of Non Minimum Phase(NMP) by separating these features into two subsystems(a primary system and a secondary system).After system decomposition, an adjoint-type ILC is applied to the Linear Time-Invariant(LTI) primary system with NMP to achieve entire output trajectory tracking, whereas state feedback is used to stabilize the secondary system with input saturation.The two controllers designed for the two subsystems can be combined to achieve the original control goal of the PDR system.Furthermore, to compensate for the receiverindependent uncertainties, a correction action is proposed by using the terminal docking error,which can lead to a smaller docking error at the docking moment.Simulation tests have been carried out to demonstrate the performance of the proposed control method, which has some advantages over the traditional derivative-type ILC and adjoint-type ILC in the docking control of PDR.

Nonlinear Feedforward and Feedback Control Design for Autonomous Underwater Glider

Underwater gliders are highly efficient,buoyancy-driven,and winged autonomous underwater vehicles.Their dynamics are multivariable nonlinear systems with unstable internal dynamics and thus their motion control is a significant challenge.To improve the inherent efficiency and enhance the behavior of the underwater glider over a wide operating regime,a nonlinear feedforward and feedback controller was developed.The nonlinear feedforward control design is based on a new stable inversion technique which determines a causal and bounded solution for the unstable internal dynamics.The feedback control law was designed by a quadratic optimal control method.Simulation results show that the derived control system is able to deal with nonminimum phase system and successfully achieves the tracking of planned output trajectories from initial to final conditions.Furthermore,the control effort is very low,which means the glider with limited power storage has longer range and higher endurance.