We study the simultaneous actuator selection and controller design problem for linear quadratic regulation with Gaussian noise over a finite horizon of length $T$ and unknown system model. We consider both episodic and non-episodic settings of the problem and propose online algorithms that specify both the sets of actuators to be utilized under a cardinality constraint and the controls corresponding to the sets of selected actuators. In the episodic setting, the interaction with the system breaks into $N$ episodes, each of which restarts from a given initial condition and has length $T$. In the non-episodic setting, the interaction goes on continuously. Our online algorithms leverage a multiarmed bandit algorithm to select the sets of actuators and a certainty equivalence approach to design the corresponding controls. We show that our online algorithms yield $\sqrt{N}$-regret for the episodic setting and $T^{2/3}$-regret for the non-episodic setting. We extend our algorithm design and analysis to show scalability with respect to both the total number of candidate actuators and the cardinality constraint. We numerically validate our theoretical results.
Many physical systems are modeled by nonlinear parabolic differential equations, such as the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky (KS) equation. In this paper, the existence of a concurrent optimal controller and actuator design is established for semilinear parabolic systems. Optimality equations are provided. The results are shown to apply to optimal controller/actuator design for the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation and also nonlinear diffusion.
In this paper, we consider the optimal controller design problem against data injection attacks on actuators for an uncertain control system. We consider attacks that aim at maximizing the attack impact while remaining stealthy in the finite horizon. To this end, we use the Conditional Value-at-Risk to characterize the risk associated with the impact of attacks. The worst-case attack impact is characterized using the recently proposed output-to-output $\ell_2$-gain (OOG). We formulate the design problem and observe that it is non-convex and hard to solve. Using the framework of scenario-based …
This paper solves the problem of regulating the rotor speed tracking error for wind turbines in the full-load region by an effective robust-adaptive control strategy. The developed controller compensates for the uncertainty in the control input effectiveness caused by a pitch actuator fault, unmeasurable wind disturbance, and nonlinearity in the model. Wind turbines have multi-layer structures such that the high-level structure is nonlinearly coupled through an aggregation of the low-level control authorities. Hence, the control design is divided into two stages. First, an $\mathcal{L}_2$ cont…
Actuator location and design are important choices in controller design for distributed parameter systems. Semi-linear partial differential equations model a wide spectrum of physical systems with distributed parameters. It is shown that under certain conditions on the nonlinearity and the cost function, an optimal control input together with an optimal actuator choice exists. First-order necessary optimality conditions are derived. The results are applied to optimal actuator and controller design in a nonlinear railway track model as well as semi-linear wave models.
We present three dynamic error feedback controllers for robust output regulation of regular linear systems. These controllers are (i) a minimal order robust controller for exponentially stable systems (ii) an observer-based robust controller and (iii) a new internal model based robust controller structure. In addition, we present two controllers that are by construction robust with respect to predefined classes of perturbations. The results are illustrated with an example where we study robust output tracking of a sinusoidal reference signal for a two-dimensional heat equation with boundary co…
Pulsed fluidic actuators play a central role in the fluid flow experimental control strategy to achieve better performances of aeronautic devices. In this paper, we demonstrate, through an experimental test bench, how the interpolatory-based Loewner Data-Driven Control (L-DDC) framework is an appropriate tool for accurately controlling the outflow velocity of this family of actuators. L-DDC combines the concept of ideal controller with the Loewner framework in a single data-driven rationale, appropriate to experimental users. The contributions of the paper are, first, to emphasise the simplici…
This paper is the first part of a two-part series in which we present results from an experimental demonstration of frequency regulation in a commercial building test facility. In Part I, we introduce the test facility and develop relevant building models. Furthermore, we design a hierarchical controller that consists of three levels: a reserve scheduler, a building climate controller, and a fan speed controller for frequency regulation. We formulate the reserve scheduler as a robust optimization problem and introduce several approximations to reduce its complexity. The building climate contro…
We study the robust output regulation of linear boundary control systems by constructing extended systems. The extended systems are established based on solving static differential equations under two new conditions. We first consider the abstract setting and present finite-dimensional reduced order controllers. The controller design is then used for particular PDE models: high-dimensional parabolic equations and beam equations with Kelvin-Voigt damping. Numerical examples will be presented using Finite Element Method.
We investigate the problem of practical output regulation, i.e., to design a controller that brings the system output in the vicinity of a desired target value while keeping the other variables bounded. We consider uncertain systems that are possibly nonlinear and the uncertainty of their linear parts is modeled element-wise through a parametric family of matrix boxes. An optimization-based design procedure is proposed that delivers a continuous-time control and estimates the maximal regulation error. We also analyze an event-triggered emulation of this controller, which can be implemented on …
Considering the structure of dc Microgrids (MGs) composed of grid-forming/feeding converters, a hierarchical Plug-and-Play (PnP) voltage/current control architecture for MG clusters is proposed. In the primary level, a PnP voltage/current controller is proposed to achieve simultaneous voltage support and current feeding function according to local references. In addition, stabilizing controller is characterized by explicit inequalities which are only related to local parameters of a MG. In the secondary level, for the system with interconnection of MGs, a leader-based voltage/current distribut…
This paper considers the problem of regulating a linear dynamical system to the solution of a convex optimization problem with an unknown or partially-known cost. We design a data-driven feedback controller - based on gradient flow dynamics - that (i) is augmented with learning methods to estimate the cost function based on infrequent (and possibly noisy) functional evaluations; and, concurrently, (ii) is designed to drive the inputs and outputs of the dynamical system to the optimizer of the problem. We derive sufficient conditions on the learning error and the controller gain to ensure that …
In the present work a new controller called Particle Swarm Optimization based state feedback gain controller has been proposed for frequency regulation of a two area system and then its performance is compared with earlier designed controllers such as Linear Quadratic Regulator Proportional Integral controller and Integral controller. The performance comparison has been done for the power system network comprising of two thermal power plants which are tie line connected. For using the optimal control based method such as LQR PI controller and computationally intelligent method such as PSO base…
This paper considers the problem of temperature regulation in multicore processors by dynamic voltage-frequency scaling. We propose a feedback law that is based on an integral controller with adjustable gain, designed for fast tracking convergence in the face of model uncertainties, time-varying plants, and tight computing-timing constraints. Moreover, unlike prior works we consider a nonlinear, time-varying plant model that trades off precision for simple and efficient on-line computations. Cycle-level, full system simulator implementation and evaluation illustrates fast and accurate tracking…
The voltage received by each customer connected to a power distribution line with local controllers (inverters) is regulated to be within a desired margin through a class of slope-restricted controllers, known conventionally as \emph{droop} controllers. We adapt the design of the droop controllers according to the known bounds of the net power consumption of each customer in each observation time window. A sufficient condition for voltage regulation is provided for each time window, which guides the design of the droop controllers, depending on the properties of the distribution line (line imp…
Humanoid robots may require a degree of compliance at the joint level for improving efficiency, shock tolerance, and safe interaction with humans. The presence of joint elasticity, however, complexifies the design of balancing and walking controllers. This paper proposes a control framework for extending momentum based controllers developed for stiff actuators to the case of series elastic actuators. The key point is to consider the motor velocities as an intermediate control input, and then apply high-gain control to stabilise the desired motor velocities achieving momentum control. Simulatio…
We study robust output regulation for parabolic partial differential equations and other infinite-dimensional linear systems with analytic semigroups. As our main results we show that robust output tracking and disturbance rejection for our class of systems can be achieved using a finite-dimensional controller and present algorithms for construction of two different internal model based robust controllers. The controller parameters are chosen based on a Galerkin approximation of the original PDE system and employ balanced truncation to reduce the orders of the controllers. In the second part o…
We will give general sufficient conditions under which a controller achieves robust regulation for a boundary control and observation system. Utilizing these conditions we construct a minimal order robust controller for an arbitrary order impedance passive linear port-Hamiltonian system. The theoretical results are illustrated with a numerical example where we implement a controller for a one-dimensional Euler-Bernoulli beam with boundary controls and boundary observations.
A problem of vibration control of smart beams was addressed in various publications which primarily utilize collocated sensors and actuators and neglect the effect of measurement noise in the observer design. This paper develops a natural design of an output controller which utilizes an eigenfunction approximation of initial continuous model, eliminates control spillover, and consequently leads to an efficient controller which marginalizes effect of bounded system and measurement disturbances while reducing beam vibrations. It is demonstrated that this control approach can be attained by a non…
This paper studies the problem of frequency regulation in power grids, while maximizing the social welfare. Two price-based controllers are proposed; the first one an internal-model-based controller and the second one based on a continuous gradient method for optimization. Both controllers can be implemented in a fully distributed fashion, with freedom in choosing a controller communication network. As a result, two real-time dynamic pricing models described by port- Hamiltonian systems are obtained. By coupling with the port- Hamiltonian description of the physical network we obtain a closed-…
This paper considers the cooperative output regulation problem for linear multi-agent systems with a directed communication graph, heterogeneous linear subsystems, and an exosystem whose output is available to only a subset of subsystems. Both the cases with nominal and uncertain linear subsystems are studied. For the case with nominal linear subsystems, a distributed adaptive observer-based controller is designed, where the distributed adaptive observer is implemented for the subsystems to estimate the exogenous signal. For the case with uncertain linear subsystems, the proposed distributed o…
Universitá del Salento（萨兰托大学）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；LAAS；Univ de Toulouse（图卢兹大学）
In this paper we present a maneuver regulation scheme for Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) micro aerial vehicles (MAV). Differently from standard trajectory tracking, maneuver regulation has an intrinsic robustness due to the fact that the vehicle is not required to chase a virtual target, but just to stay on a (properly designed) desired path with a given velocity profile. In this paper we show how a robust maneuver regulation controller can be easily designed by converting an existing tracking scheme. The resulting maneuvering controller has three main appealing features, namely it: (i) …
In this paper, adaptive set-point regulation controllers for discrete-time nonlinear systems are constructed. The system to be controlled is assumed to have a parametric uncertainty, and an excitation signal is used in order to obtain the parameter estimate. The proposed controller belongs to the category of indirect adaptive controllers, and its construction is based on the policy of calculating the control input rather than that of obtaining a control law. The proposed method solves the adaptive set-point regulation problem under the (possibly minimal) assumption that the target state is rea…
In this paper, we model and solve the problem of designing in an optimal way actuators for parabolic partial differential equations settled on a bounded open connected subset $Ω$ of IR n. We optimize not only the location but also the shape of actuators, by finding what is the optimal distribution of actuators in $Ω$, over all possible such distributions of a given measure. Using the moment method, we formulate a spectral optimal design problem, which consists of maximizing a criterion corresponding to an average over random initial data of the largest L 2-energy of controllers. Since we choos…
We introduce general results on well-posedness and output regulation of regular linear systems with nonautonomous controllers. We present a generalization of the internal model principle for time-dependent controllers with asymptotically converging parameters. This general result is utilised in controller design for output tracking and disturbance rejection of harmonic signals with unknown frequencies. Our controller can be flexibly combined with different frequency estimation methods. The results are illustrated in rejection of unknown harmonic disturbances for a one-dimensional boundary cont…
The University of Newcastle（纽卡斯尔大学）；University of Naples Federico II（那不勒斯腓特烈二世大学）；National University of Rosario（罗萨里奥国立大学）
In this paper, we present an impedance control design for multi-variable linear and nonlinear robotic systems. The control design considers force and state feedback to improve the performance of the closed loop. Simultaneous feedback of forces and states allows the controller for an extra degree of freedom to approximate the desired impedance port behaviour. A numerical analysis is used to demonstrate the desired impedance closed-loop behaviour.
We consider controller design for robust output tracking and disturbance rejection for continuous-time periodic linear systems with periodic reference and disturbance signals. As our main results we present four different controllers: A feedforward control law and a discrete-time dynamic error feedback controller for output tracking and disturbance rejection, a robust discrete-time feedback controller, and finally a discrete-time feedback controller that achieves approximate robust output tracking and disturbance rejection. The presented constructions are also new for time-invariant finite and…
This paper proposes a data-driven framework to solve time-varying optimization problems associated with unknown linear dynamical systems. Making online control decisions to regulate a dynamical system to the solution of an optimization problem is a central goal in many modern engineering applications. Yet, the available methods critically rely on a precise knowledge of the system dynamics, thus mandating a preliminary system identification phase before a controller can be designed. In this work, we leverage results from behavioral theory to show that the steady-state transfer function of a lin…
A spherical robot consists of an externally spherical rigid body rolling on a two-dimensional surface, actuated by an auxiliary mechanism. For a class of actuation mechanisms, we derive a controller for the geometric center of the sphere to asymptotically track any sufficiently smooth reference trajectory, with robustness to bounded, constant uncertainties in the inertial properties of the sphere and actuation mechanism, and to constant disturbance forces including, for example, from constant inclination of the rolling surface. The sphere and actuator are modeled as distinct systems, coupled b…
This paper is about the nonlinear local error feedback regulator problem. The plant is a nonlinear finite-dimensional system with a single control input and a single output and it is locally exponentially stable around the origin. The plant is driven, via a separate disturbance input, by a Lyapunov stable exosystem whose states are nonwandering. The reference signal that the plant output must track is a nonlinear function of the exosystem state. The local error feedback regulator problem is to design a dynamic feedback controller, with the tracking error as its input, such that (i) the closed-…
The aim of this paper is in developing unifying frequency domain theory for robust regulation of MIMO systems. The main theoretical results achieved are a new formulation of the internal model principle, solvability conditions for the robust regulation problem, and a parametrization of all robustly regulating controllers. The main results are formulated with minimal assumptions and without using coprime factorizations, thus guaranteeing their applicability with a very general class of systems. In addition to theoretical results, the design of robust controllers is addressed. The results are il…
This paper presents, implements, and evaluates a power-regulation technique for multicore processors, based on an integral controller with adjustable gain. The gain is designed for wide stability margins, and computed in real time as part of the control law. The tracking performance of the control system is robust with respect to modeling uncertainties and computational errors in the loop. The main challenge of designing such a controller is that the power dissipation of program-workloads varies widely and often cannot be measured accurately; hence extant controllers are either ad hoc or based…
Control strategy for suppression of spiral-wave in a 2-D model of an excitable media is developed with application to the cardiac system. The controller which incorporates a finite number of actuators (electrodes) assures the establishment of traveling plane behavior using the following strategy in the context of cardiac system: a small current that is proportional to a discrepancy between actual and assigned voltages at some sensor position is imposed via the actuators. We present a systematic methodology for controller design and for stability analysis based on an approximate 1-D model of th…
The paper deals with the control and regulation by integral controllers forthe nonlinear systems governed by scalar quasi-linear hyperbolic partial differentialequations. Both the control input and the measured output are located on the boundary.The closed-loop stabilization of the linearized model with the designed integral controlleris proved first by using the method of spectral analysis and then by the Lyapunov directmethod. Based on the elaborated Lyapunov function we prove local exponential stabilityof the nonlinear closed-loop system with the same controller. The output regulationto the…
This paper addresses the problem of controlling a variable-speed wind turbine with a Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG), modeled as an electromechanically-coupled nonlinear system with rotor voltages and blade pitch angle as its inputs, active and reactive powers as its outputs, and most of the aerodynamic and mechanical parameters as its uncertainties. Using a blend of linear and nonlinear control strategies (including feedback linearization, pole placement, uncertainty estimation, and gradient-based potential function minimization) as well as time-scale separation in the dynamics, we deve…
