Control system

Abstract: : The principal goal of this three years research effort was to enhance the research base which would support efforts to systematically control, or take advantage of, dominant nonlinear or distributed parameter effects in the evolution of complex dynamical systems. Such an enhancement is intended to support the development of flight controllers for increasing the high angle of attack or high agility capabilities of existing and future generations of aircraft and missiles. The principal investigating team has succeeded in the development of a systematic methodology for designing feedback control laws solving the problems of asymptotic tracking and disturbance rejection for nonlinear systems with unknown, or uncertain, real parameters. Another successful research project was the development of a systematic feedback design theory for solving the problems of asymptotic tracking and disturbance rejection for linear distributed parameter systems. The technical details which needed to be overcome are discussed more fully in this final report.

Abstract: A new architecture for controlling mobile robots is described. Layers of control system are built to let the robot operate at increasing levels of competence. Layers are made up of asynchronous modules that communicate over low-bandwidth channels. Each module is an instance of a fairly simple computational machine. Higher-level layers can subsume the roles of lower levels by suppressing their outputs. However, lower levels continue to function as higher levels are added. The result is a robust and flexible robot control system. The system has been used to control a mobile robot wandering around unconstrained laboratory areas and computer machine rooms. Eventually it is intended to control a robot that wanders the office areas of our laboratory, building maps of its surroundings using an onboard arm to perform simple tasks.

Abstract: It is demonstrated that neural networks can be used effectively for the identification and control of nonlinear dynamical systems. The emphasis is on models for both identification and control. Static and dynamic backpropagation methods for the adjustment of parameters are discussed. In the models that are introduced, multilayer and recurrent networks are interconnected in novel configurations, and hence there is a real need to study them in a unified fashion. Simulation results reveal that the identification and adaptive control schemes suggested are practically feasible. Basic concepts and definitions are introduced throughout, and theoretical questions that have to be addressed are also described. >

Abstract: A new architecture for controlling mobile robots is described. Layers of control system are built to let the robot operate at increasing levels of competence. Layers are made up of asynchronous modules that communicate over low-bandwidth channels. Each module is an instance of a fairly simple computational machine. Higher-level layers can subsume the roles of lower levels by suppressing their outputs. However, lower levels continue to function as higher levels are added. The result is a robust and flexible robot control system. The system has been used to control a mobile robot wandering around unconstrained laboratory areas and computer machine rooms. Eventually it is intended to control a robot that wanders the office areas of our laboratory, building maps of its surroundings using an onboard arm to perform simple tasks.

Abstract: From the Publisher: This is a book on practical feedback control and not on system theory in general. Feedback is used in control systems to change the dynamics of the system and to reduce the sensitivity of the system to both signal and model uncertainty. The book presents a rigorous, yet easily readable, introduction to the analysis and design of robust multivariable control systems. It provides the reader with insights into the opportunities and limitations of feedback control. Its objective is to enable the engineer to design real control systems. Important topics are: extensions and classical frequency-domain methods to multivariable systems, analysis of directions using the singular value decomposition, performance limitations and input-output controllability analysis, model uncertainty and robustness including the structured singular value, control structure design, and methods for controller synthesis and model reduction. Numerous worked examples, exercises and case studies, which make frequent use of MATLAB, are included. MATLAB files for examples and figures, solutions to selected exercises, extra problems and linear state-space models for the case studies are available on the Internet.