Modified λ-Policy Iteration Based Adaptive Dynamic Programming for Unknown Discrete-Time Linear Systems.

In this article, the λ -policy iteration ( λ -PI) method for the optimal control problem of discrete-time linear systems is reconsidered and restated from a novel aspect. First, the traditional λ -PI method is recalled, and some new properties of the traditional λ -PI are proposed. Based on these new properties, a modified λ -PI algorithm is introduced with its convergence proven. Compared with the existing results, the initial condition is further relaxed. The data-driven implementation is then constructed with a new matrix rank condition for verifying the feasibility of the proposed data-driven implementation. A simulation example verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Substability and Substabilization: Control of Subfully Actuated Systems.

The region of attraction of the Lyapunov asymptotic stability at the origin is defined to be a ball centered at the origin, which is clearly simply connected and also bounded in the local case. In this article, the concept of substability is proposed, which allows "gaps" and "holes" in the region of attraction of the Lyapunov exponential stability, and also allows the origin to be a boundary point of the region of attraction. The concept is meaningful and useful in many practical applications, but is particularly made so with the control of single- and multi-order subfully actuated systems. Specifically, the singular set of a sub-FAS is first defined, and a substabilizing controller is then designed such that the closed-loop system is a constant linear one with an arbitrarily assignable eigen-polynomial, but with its initial values restricted within a so-called region of exponential attraction (ROEA). Consequently, the substabilizing controller drives all the state trajectories starting from the ROEA exponentially to the origin. The introduced concept of substabilization is of great importance because, on the one side, it is often practically useful since the designed ROEA is often large enough for certain applications, while on the other side, Lyapunov asymptotically stabilizing controllers can be further easily established based on substabilization. Several examples are given to demonstrate the proposed theories.

Robust Stabilization of Time-Varying Nonlinear Systems With Time-Varying Delays: A Fully Actuated System Approach.

A general time-varying nonlinear uncertain system with time-varying delays is proposed, which is composed of two subsystems: one is an uncertain fully actuated subsystem representing the controllable part in the system, the other is an isolated globally uniformly asymptotically (GUA) stable autonomous subsystem which represents the uncontrollable part in the system. Both the single-order fully actuated system (FAS) and the multiorder FAS representations of the controllable subsystem are introduced. The problem of robust stabilization of such a compound system with full-state feedback can be converted into an input-to-state GUA stabilization problem of the fully actuated subsystem, which is solved for both types of single- and multiorder FASs with very general assumptions on the uncertain perturbed functions. Under certain conditions, the solution reduces to that for robust stabilization with partial-state feedback, and naturally reduce to that for robust stabilization of FASs. Two illustrative examples demonstrate both the effect and the application procedure of the proposed robust stabilization approach.

Path-following control of wheeled planetary exploration robots moving on deformable rough terrain.

The control of planetary rovers, which are high performance mobile robots that move on deformable rough terrain, is a challenging problem. Taking lateral skid into account, this paper presents a rough terrain model and nonholonomic kinematics model for planetary rovers. An approach is proposed in which the reference path is generated according to the planned path by combining look-ahead distance and path updating distance on the basis of the carrot following method. A path-following strategy for wheeled planetary exploration robots incorporating slip compensation is designed. Simulation results of a four-wheeled robot on deformable rough terrain verify that it can be controlled to follow a planned path with good precision, despite the fact that the wheels will obviously skid and slip.

Generalized PID observer design for descriptor linear systems.

A type of generalized proportional-integral-derivative observers is proposed for descriptor linear systems. Based on a general parametric solution to a type of generalized Sylvester matrix equations, a parametric design approach for such observers is established. The proposed approach provides parameterizations for all the observer gain matrices, gives the parametric expression for the corresponding left eigenvector matrix of the observer system matrix, realizes the elimination of impulsive behaviors, and guarantees the regularity of the observer system. The design method can offer all the degrees of design freedom, which can be utilized to achieve various desired system specifications and performances. In addition, a numerical example is employed to show the design procedure and illustrate the effect of the presented approach.

Design of PI observers for continuous-time descriptor linear systems.

A parametric design approach for proportional-integral (PI) observers for continuous-time descriptor linear systems is proposed based on a complete general parametric solution to the generalized Sylvester matrix equation. The proposed approach provides complete parameterizations for all the observer gain matrices, gives the parametric expression for the corresponding finite left eigenvector matrix of the observer system matrix, realizes elimination of impulsive responses, and guarantees the regularity of the observer system. The design method offers all the degrees of design freedom, which can be utilized to achieve various desired system specifications and performances and, thus, has great potentials in applications. A numerical example is employed to show the design procedure and illustrate the effect of the proposed approach. Simulation results show a satisfactory tracking performance for descriptor linear systems.