An Overview of Finite/Fixed-Time Control and Its Application in Engineering Systems

The finite/fixed-time stabilization and tracking control is currently a hot field in various systems since the faster convergence can be obtained. By contrast to the asymptotic stability,the finite-time stability possesses the better control performance and disturbance rejection property. Different from the finite-time stability, the fixed-time stability has a faster convergence speed and the upper bound of the settling time can be estimated. Moreover, the convergent time does not rely on the initial information.This work aims at presenting an overview of the finite/fixed-time stabilization and tracking control and its applications in engineering systems. Firstly, several fundamental definitions on the finite/fixed-time stability are recalled. Then, the research results on the finite/fixed-time stabilization and tracking control are reviewed in detail and categorized via diverse input signal structures and engineering applications. Finally, some challenging problems needed to be solved are presented.

Adaptive Fixed-Time Control of Nonlinear MASs With Actuator Faults

The adaptive fixed-time consensus problem for a class of nonlinear multi-agent systems(MASs)with actuator faults is considered in this paper.To approximate the unknown nonlinear functions in MASs,radial basis function neural networks are used.In addition,the first order sliding mode differentiator is utilized to solve the“explosion of complexity”problem,and a filter error compensation method is proposed to ensure the convergence of filter error in fixed time.With the help of the Nussbaum function,the actuator failure compensation mechanism is constructed.By designing the adaptive fixed-time controller,all signals in MASs are bounded,and the consensus errors between the leader and all followers converge to a small area of origin.Finally,the effectiveness of the proposed control method is verified by simulation examples.

Refined disturbance observer based prescribed performance fixed-time control of high-speed EMS trains with track irregularities

High-speed Electromagnetic Suspension(EMS)train is continuously impacted by the irregularity of the track,which worsens the levitation performance of the train.In this paper,a composite control scheme for the EMS is proposed to suppress track irregularities by integrating a Refined Disturbance Observer(RDO)and a Prescribed Performance Fixed-Time Controller(PPFTC).The RDO is designed to estimate precisely the track irregularities and lumped disturbances with uncertainties and exogenous disturbances in the suspension system,and reduce input chattering by applying to the disturbance compensation channel.PPFTC is designed to converge the suspension air gap error to equilibrium point with prescribed performance by completing error conversion,and solve the fast dynamic issue of EMS.And the boundary of overshoot and steady-state is limited in the ranged prescribed.A theoretical analysis is conducted on the stability of the proposed control method.Finally,the effectiveness and reasonability of the proposed composite anti-disturbance control scheme is verified by simulation results.

Robust fixed-time flight controller for a dual-system convertible UAV in the cruise mode

This paper investigates the attitude tracking control problem for the cruise mode of a dual-system convertible unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)in the presence of parameter uncertainties,unmodeled uncertainties and wind disturbances.First,a fixed-time disturbance observer(FXDO)based on the bi-limit homogeneity theory is designed to estimate the lumped disturbance of the convertible UAV model.Then,a fixed-time integral sliding mode control(FXISMC)is combined with the FXDO to achieve strong robustness and chattering reduction.Bi-limit homogeneity theory and Lyapunov theory are applied to provide detailed proof of the fixed-time stability.Finally,numerical simulation experimental results verify the robustness of the proposed algorithm to model parameter uncertainties and wind disturbances.In addition,the proposed algorithm is deployed in a open-source UAV autopilot and its effectiveness is further demonstrated by hardware-in-the-loop experimental results.

A Novel Disturbance Observer Based Fixed-Time Sliding Mode Control for Robotic Manipulators With Global Fast Convergence

This paper proposes a new global fixed-time sliding mode control strategy for the trajectory tracking control of uncertain robotic manipulators.First,a fixed-time disturbance observer(FTDO) is designed to deal with the adverse effects of model uncertainties and external disturbances in the manipulator systems.Then an adaptive scheme is used and the adaptive FTDO(AFTDO) is developed,so that the priori knowledge of the lumped disturbance is not required.Further,a new non-singular fast terminal sliding mode(NFTSM) surface is designed by using an arctan function,which helps to overcome the singularity problem and enhance the robustness of the system.Based on the estimation of the lumped disturbance by the AFTDO,a fixed-time non-singular fast terminal sliding mode controller(FTNFTSMC)is developed to guarantee the trajectory tracking errors converge to zero within a fixed time.The settling time is independent of the initial state of the system.In addition,the stability of the AFTDO and FTNFTSMC is strictly proved by using Lyapunov method.Finally,the fixed-time NFESM(FTNFTSM) algorithm is validated on a 2-link manipulator and comparisons with other existing sliding mode controllers(SMCs) are performed.The comparative results confirm that the FTNFTSMC has superior control performance.

Fixed-Time Sliding Mode Control With Varying Exponent Coefficient for Modular Reconfigurable Flight Arrays

The modular system can change its physical structure by self-assembly and self-disassembly between modules to dynamically adapt to task and environmental requirements. Recognizing the adaptive capability of modular systems, we introduce a modular reconfigurable flight array(MRFA) to pursue a multifunction aircraft fitting for diverse tasks and requirements,and investigate the attitude control and the control allocation problem by using the modular reconfigurable flight array as a platform. First, considering the variable and irregular topological configuration of the modular array, a center-of-mass-independent flight array dynamics model is proposed to allow control allocation under over-actuated situations. Secondly, in order to meet the stable, fast and accurate attitude tracking performance of the MRFA, a fixed-time convergent sliding mode controller with state-dependent variable exponent coefficients is proposed to ensure fast convergence rate both away from and near the system equilibrium point without encountering the singularity. It is shown that the controller also has fixed-time convergent characteristics even in the presence of external disturbances. Finally,simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed modeling and control strategies.

Integrated Observer-based Fixed-time Control with Backstepping Method for Exoskeleton Robot

To achieve the fast convergence and tracking precision of a robotic upper-limb exoskeleton,this paper proposes an observer-based integrated fixed-time control scheme with a backstepping method.Firstly,a typical 5 DoF(degrees of freedom)dynamics is constructed by Lagrange equations and processed for control purposes.Secondly,second-order sliding mode controllers(SOSMC)are developed and novel sliding mode surfaces are introduced to ensure the fixed-time convergence of the human-robot system.Both the reaching time and settling time are proved to be bounded with certain values independent of initial system conditions.For the purpose of rejecting the matched and unmatched disturbances,nonlinear fixed-time observers are employed to estimate the exact value of disturbances and compensate the controllers online.Ultimately,the synthesis of controllers and disturbance observers is adopted to achieve the excellent tracking performance and simulations are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.

Command Filtered Finite/Fixed-time Heading Tracking Control of Surface Vehicles

This paper investigates the heading tracking problem of surface vehicles with unknown model parameters.Based on finite/fixed-time control theories and in the context of command filtered control,two novel adaptive control laws are developed by which the vehicle can track the desired heading within settling time with all signals of the closed-loop system are uniformly bounded.The effectiveness and performance of the schemes are demonstrated by simulations and comparison studies.

Exact uncertainty compensation of linear systems by continuous fixed-time output-feedback controller

This paper studies the fixed-time output-feedback control for a class of linear systems subject to matched uncertainties.To estimate the uncertainties and system states,we design a composite observer which consists of a high-order sliding mode observer and a Luenberger observer.Then,a robust output-feedback controller with fixed-time convergence guarantee is constructed.Rigorous theoretical proof shows that with the proposed controller,the system states can converge to zero in fixed-time free of the initial conditions.Finally,simulation comparison with existing algorithms is given.Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed controller in terms of its fixed-time convergence and perfect disturbance rejection.

A Sample of Semi-Actuated Traffic Control versus Fixed-Time Traffic Control

Fixed-time control of traffic signals pursues the regulation of phases based on historical data of traffic demand, in this way, neglecting of the random arrival rates of traffic flow on different intersection streams causes increasing of the stops and delays and fuel consumption at the same time. Coordinated semi-actuated control due to ability to respond traffic demands on both main and secondary directions, based on road detector registration saves the coordinated features, serving the unused time to the main road, while the secondary clears early. In this paper, the authors analyzed and explained comparatively the results of LOS （level of service） parameters of the current state of control （fixed-time） with the proposed control （semi-actuated coordinated） of the artery of length 2,348 km consisted of four signalized T intersections. Highway Capacity Manual and Synchro/Sim Traffic software are used for analysis and optimization of parameters in this paper.

Lyapunov-based fixed-time stabilization control of quantum systems

In this paper,we consider the fixed-time stabilization control problem of quantum systems modeled by Schrodinger equations.Firstly,the Lyapunov-based fixed-time stability criterion is extended to finitedimensional closed quantum systems in the form of coherence vectors.Then for a two-level quantum system with single control input,a non-smooth fractional-order control law is designed using the relative state distance.By integrating the fixed-time Lyapunov control technique and the bi-limit homogeneity theory,the quantum system is proved to be stabilized to an eigenstate of the inherent Hamiltonian in a fixed time.Comparing with existing methods in quantum system control,the proposed approach can guarantee stabilization in a fixed time without depending on the initial states.

Fixed-time Sliding Mode Formation Control of AUVs Based on a Disturbance Observer

In this paper,we investigate formation tracking control of autonomous underwater vehicles(AUVs)with model parameter uncertainties and external disturbances.The external disturbances due to the wind,waves,and ocean currents are combined with the model parameter uncertainties as a compound disturbance.Then a disturbance observer(DO)is introduced to estimate the compound disturbance,which can be achieved within a finite time independent of the initial estimation error.Based on a DO,a novel fixed-time sliding control scheme is developed,by which the follower vehicle can track the leader vehicle with all the states globally stabilized within a given settling time.The effectiveness and performance of the method are demonstrated by numerical simulations.

Adaptive Quasi Fixed-Time Orbit Control Around Asteroid with Performance Guarantees

This paper investigates a novel quasi fixed-time orbit tracking control method for spacecraft around an asteroid in the presence of uncertain dynamics and unknown uncertainties.To quantitatively characterize the transient and steady-state responses of orbit tracking error system,a continuous performance function is devised via using a quartic polynomial.Then,integrating backstepping control technique and barrier Lyapunov function leads to a quasi fixed-time convergent orbit tracking controller without using any fractional state information and symbolic functions.Finally,two groups of illustrative examples are employed to test the effectiveness of the proposed orbit control method.

Observer-based multivariable fixed-time formation control of mobile robots

This paper proposes a multivariable fixed-time leaderfollower formation control method for a group of nonholonomic mobile robots, which has the ability to estimate multiple uncertainties. Firstly, based on the state space model of the leader-follower formation, a multivariable fixed-time formation kinematics controller is designed. Secondly, to overcome uncertainties existing in the nonholonomic mobile robot system, such as load change,friction, external disturbance, a multivariable fixed-time torque controller based on the fixed-time disturbance observer at the dynamic level is designed. The designed torque controller is cascaded with the formation controller and finally realizes accurate estimation of the uncertain part of the system, the follower tracking of reference velocity and the desired formation of the leader and the follower in a fixed-time. The fixed-time upper bound is completely determined by the controller parameters, which is independent of the initial state of the system. The multivariable fixed-time control theory and the Lyapunov method are adopted to ensure the system stability.Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified by the experimental simulation.

Fixed-Time Lyapunov Criteria and State-Feedback Controller Design for Stochastic Nonlinear Systems

This paper investigates the fixed-time stability theorem and state-feedback controller design for stochastic nonlinear systems.We propose an improved fixed-time Lyapunov theorem with a more rigorous and reasonable proof procedure.In particular,an important corollary is obtained,which can give a less conservative upper-bound estimate of the settling time.Based on the backstepping technique and the addition of a power integrator method,a state-feedback controller is skillfully designed for a class of stochastic nonlinear systems.It is proved that the proposed controller can render the closed-loop system fixed-time stable in probability with the help of the proposed fixed-time stability criteria.Finally,the effectiveness of the proposed controller is demonstrated by simulation examples and comparisons.

Dynamic Event-Triggered Fixed-Time Consensus Control and Its Applications to Magnetic Map Construction

This article deals with the consensus problem of multi-agent systems by developing a fixed-time consensus control approach with a dynamic event-triggered rule. First, a new fixedtime stability condition is obtained where the less conservative settling time is given such that the theoretical settling time can well reflect the real consensus time. Second, a dynamic event-triggered rule is designed to decrease the use of chip and network resources where Zeno behaviors can be avoided after consensus is achieved, especially for finite/fixed-time consensus control approaches. Third, in terms of the developed dynamic event-triggered rule, a fixed-time consensus control approach by introducing a new item is proposed to coordinate the multi-agent system to reach consensus. The corresponding stability of the multi-agent system with the proposed control approach and dynamic eventtriggered rule is analyzed based on Lyapunov theory and the fixed-time stability theorem. At last, the effectiveness of the dynamic event-triggered fixed-time consensus control approach is verified by simulations and experiments for the problem of magnetic map construction based on multiple mobile robots.

Advanced Functional Electromagnetic Shielding Materials:A Review Based on Micro‑Nano Structure Interface Control of Biomass Cell Walls

Research efforts on electromagnetic interference(EMI)shielding materials have begun to converge on green and sustainable biomass materials.These materials offer numerous advantages such as being lightweight,porous,and hierarchical.Due to their porous nature,interfacial compatibility,and electrical conductivity,biomass materials hold significant potential as EMI shielding materials.Despite concerted efforts on the EMI shielding of biomass materials have been reported,this research area is still relatively new compared to traditional EMI shielding materials.In particular,a more comprehensive study and summary of the factors influencing biomass EMI shielding materials including the pore structure adjustment,preparation process,and micro-control would be valuable.The preparation methods and characteristics of wood,bamboo,cellulose and lignin in EMI shielding field are critically discussed in this paper,and similar biomass EMI materials are summarized and analyzed.The composite methods and fillers of various biomass materials were reviewed.this paper also highlights the mechanism of EMI shielding as well as existing prospects and challenges for development trends in this field.

Revised barrier function-based adaptive finite-and fixed-time convergence super-twisting control

This paper presents an adaptive gain,finite-and fixedtime convergence super-twisting-like algorithm based on a revised barrier function,which is robust to perturbations with unknown bounds.It is shown that this algorithm can ensure a finite-and fixed-time convergence of the sliding variable to the equilibrium,no matter what the initial conditions of the system states are,and maintain it there in a predefined vicinity of the origin without violation.Also,the proposed method avoids the problem of overestimation of the control gain that exists in the current fixed-time adaptive control.Moreover,it shows that the revised barrier function can effectively reduce the computation load by obviating the need of increasing the magnitude of sampling step compared with the conventional barrier function.This feature will be beneficial when the algorithm is implemented in practice.After that,the estimation of the fixed convergence time of the proposed method is derived and the impractical requirement of the preceding fixed-time adaptive control that the adaptive gains must be large enough to engender the sliding mode at time t=0 is discarded.Finally,the outperformance of the proposed method over the existing counterpart method is demonstrated with a numerical simulation.

Fixed-Time and Finite-Time Synchronization for a Class of Output-Coupling Complex Networks via Continuous Control

This paper mainly investigates the finite-time and fixed-time synchronization problem for a class of general output-coupling complex networks with output feedback nodes. The fixed-time and finite-time synchronization protocols are presented based on continuous controller strategies which can efficaciously eliminate chattering phenomenon existing in some previous results. Several sufficient conditions ensuring fixed-time and finite-time synchronization are derived by employing Lyapunov stability theory, linear matrix inequality (LMI) and adaptive technique. Furthermore, aimed at the model of this article, we study the problem of adaptive coupling strength in fixed-time synchronization which is rarely involved in previous results. Finally, several numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of our results.

Fixed-time group consensus of second-order multi-agent systems based on event-triggered control

The problem of fixed-time group consensus for second-order multi-agent systems with disturbances is investigated.For cooperative-competitive network,two different control protocols,fixed-time group consensus and fixed-time eventtriggered group consensus,are designed.It is demonstrated that there is no Zeno behavior under the designed eventtriggered control.Meanwhile,it is proved that for an arbitrary initial state of the system,group consensus within the settling time could be obtained under the proposed control protocols by using matrix analysis and graph theory.Finally,a series of numerical examples are propounded to illustrate the performance of the proposed control protocol.