Linear Parameter-varying Systems Research Articles

Controlling neural activity: LPV modelling of optogenetically actuated Wilson–Cowan model * *This work was supported by ANPCyT, Ministry of Science & Technology, Argentina Grant PICT2017-2417. Demián García-Violini is supported by the Agencia I+D+i, Ministry of Science & Technology, Argentina, under PICT-2021-I-INVI-00190.

Objective. This paper aims to bridge the gap between neurophysiology and automatic control methodologies by redefining the Wilson–Cowan (WC) model as a control-oriented linear parameter-varying (LPV) system. A novel approach is presented that allows for the application of a control strategy to modulate and track neural activity. Approach. The WC model is redefined as a control-oriented LPV system in this study. The LPV modelling framework is leveraged to design an LPV controller, which is used to regulate and manipulate neural dynamics. Main results. Promising outcomes, in understanding and controlling neural processes through the synergistic combination of control-oriented modelling and estimation, are obtained in this study. An LPV controller demonstrates to be effective in regulating neural activity. Significance. The presented methodology effectively induces neural patterns, taking into account optogenetic actuation. The combination of control strategies with neurophysiology provides valuable insights into neural dynamics. The proposed approach opens up new possibilities for using control techniques to study and influence brain functions, which can have key implications in neuroscience and medicine. By means of a model-based controller which accounts for non-linearities, noise and uncertainty, neural signals can be induced on brain structures.

Integrated sensor FTC using integral sliding mode control

In this paper, a sliding mode sensor fault tolerant control scheme which involves a first order sliding mode observer, fault compensation logic and an integral sliding mode controller, is proposed for a class of uncertain linear parameter-varying systems. The proposed scheme has the capability to retain near nominal fault-free performance in the face of a class of sensor faults/failures. In particular, the closed-loop stability of the sensor fault tolerant scheme involving the sliding mode observer and the sliding mode controller in the presence of faults and uncertainty, is rigorously analysed. Furthermore, the paper proposes an algorithm to simultaneously synthesize the design freedom associated with the observer gains and control law despite the lack of a separation principle in the closed loop system overall caused by the uncertainty. The proposed scheme is validated using a commercial aircraft model. Good simulation results show the efficacy of the scheme.

A new approach for dynamic output feedback control design of time-delayed nonlinear systems

This paper introduces a full-order dynamic output-feedback (DOF) controller for discrete-time nonlinear systems with time-varying delays represented by Linear Parameter-Varying (LPV) systems. The controller design is carried out by developing delay-dependent Linear Matrix Inequality based conditions using Lyapunov–Krasovskii stability arguments. A notable characteristic of the proposed approach is that the dynamic controller gains are directly obtained, without the need for variable transformations, equality constraints, or iterative algorithms. This feature sets it apart from many existing approaches in the literature and simplifies the design process. Furthermore, the proposed approach guarantees the local asymptotic stability of the origin of the closed-loop system and provides an estimated admissible initial condition region. The correct operation of the system is ensured once the state trajectories initiated within the admissible initial condition region remain enclosed in the validity domain of the LPV model. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the potential and effectiveness of the proposed conditions.

Finite-time bumpless transfer control problem for switched LPV systems with guaranteed switching frequency

For the switched linear parameter-varying (LPV) systems, the finite-time bumpless transfer control (FTBTC) issue is addressed by utilising the parameter-dependent multiple piecewise Lyapunov function method. First, for the switched LPV systems, a finite-time bumpless transfer performance is proposed, which only demands that bumpless transfer inequation holds in the activated interval in place of entire intervals. Second, a switching law depending on external parameters, system state, dwell time is designed to guarantee switching frequency. Third, a time-varying switching controller is designed, under which a solvable condition of the FTBTC issue is presented. It allows the FTBTC issue of each subsystem to be unsolvable. Finally, an aero-engine model is established to confirm the availability of the proposed scheme.

Orthotope-search-expansion-based extended zonotopic Kalman filter design for a discrete-time linear parameter-varying system with a dual-noise term

A novel algorithm utilizing an extended zonotopic Kalman filter based on the orthotope search expansion method is introduced to solve the state estimation problem in discrete-time linear parameter-varying systems when the dual noise of the systems is assumed to be bounded but unknown. First, to identify unknown parameters, an orthotope search expansion method is proposed with a measurement strip constraint. Subsequently, based on the parameter identification orthotopic set, an extended zonotopic Kalman filter algorithm is proposed to derive an estimation interval that wraps the true state of the system. Next, by minimizing the size of the zonotope, the optimal gain matrix for the extended zonotopic Kalman filter algorithm is determined. Finally, the proposed methods are demonstrated for their effectiveness and accuracy through the presentation of two simulation examples.

A new H∞ observer for continuous LPV systems with unknown inputs using an HOSM differentiator

Abstract The main contribution of this paper is the development of $H_{\infty }$ state and unknown input (UI) observers for noisy linear parameter-varying (LPV) systems. The observers are constructed in order to be unbiased (in particular the state estimation error is decoupled from the UI) and with a minimum $L_{2}$ transfer between the perturbations (that are assumed to be with finite energy) and the estimation errors. Contrary to equivalent observers developed in the literature, the present one relaxes a widely used rank condition on the system matrices for decoupling the UI. In order to do so, high-order derivation is needed, which is done using a high-order sliding modes differentiator. A method is given to design observer gains for LPV systems under polytopic form. Finally, three examples illustrate some aspects of the theoretical contributions, and compare this work to the existing ones.

[formula omitted] gain-scheduled dynamic output feedback control with transient performance applied to electrical microgrid

This paper introduces an approach for designing gain-scheduled dynamic output feedback controllers for continuous-time Linear Parameter-Varying (LPV) systems. The aim is to improve transient response by incorporating both D-stability and H∞ criteria into the synthesis conditions. We achieve this by employing changes of variables and congruence transformations, which lead to new synthesis conditions expressed as linear matrix inequalities. Additional fine-tuned scalar parameters can be used to enhance further the controller performance in terms of less conservative H∞ guaranteed costs. To assess the effectiveness of our proposed synthesis procedure, we conduct computational experiments in the context of a microinverter-based distributed power generation system. These experiments take into account real-world operational characteristics, providing a comprehensive evaluation of our approach. The results demonstrate that the designed controller effectively ensures the desired closed-loop system behavior, even when dealing with state noise and discretization errors originating from digital implementation.

Safe Reinforcement Learning via a Model-Free Safety Certifier.

This article presents a data-driven safe reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm for discrete-time nonlinear systems. A data-driven safety certifier is designed to intervene with the actions of the RL agent to ensure both safety and stability of its actions. This is in sharp contrast to existing model-based safety certifiers that can result in convergence to an undesired equilibrium point or conservative interventions that jeopardize the performance of the RL agent. To this end, the proposed method directly learns a robust safety certifier while completely bypassing the identification of the system model. The nonlinear system is modeled using linear parameter varying (LPV) systems with polytopic disturbances. To prevent the requirement for learning an explicit model of the LPV system, data-based λ -contractivity conditions are first provided for the closed-loop system to enforce robust invariance of a prespecified polyhedral safe set and the system's asymptotic stability. These conditions are then leveraged to directly learn a robust data-based gain-scheduling controller by solving a convex program. A significant advantage of the proposed direct safe learning over model-based certifiers is that it completely resolves conflicts between safety and stability requirements while assuring convergence to the desired equilibrium point. Data-based safety certification conditions are then provided using Minkowski functions. They are then used to seemingly integrate the learned backup safe gain-scheduling controller with the RL controller. Finally, we provide a simulation example to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

LQR controller design for affine LPV systems using reinforcement learning

In this paper, a data-driven sub-optimal state feedback is designed for a continuous time linear parameter varying (LPV) system using reinforcement learning. Time-varying parameters lie in a poly top and the system matrix has an affine representation for the parameters. Two novels, on-policy and off-policy algorithms, are proposed using available data from vertex systems of polytop to minimise a performance index and admit a common Lyapunov function (CLF). A convex optimisation problem is derived for each iteration based on Lyapunov inequality. Algorithms yield stabilising feedback gain in each iteration and convergence to a common lyapunov function. We demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method by simulation of two case studies.

Multimodel Bayesian estimation for LPV time-delay systems with incomplete observations

A multimodel Bayesian approach to identifying linear parameter-varying (LPV) systems subject to piecewise input time-delays, outliers and randomly missing observations is developed in this article. The global nonlinearity is characterized by weighted combination of multiple submodels, where each local-model identity is treated as hidden variable to represent the working mode of the system. To tackle data anomaly problems, the Student’s t-distribution is utilized to model the observations containing outliers, and the missing part of the output is regarded as another hidden variable. By introducing weighting coefficient to indicate the significance of each delay, the piecewise input time-delay can be automatically chosen irrespective of its initial interval. All required quantities, including the identities of local-model and time-delay, the missing values of the outputs, and the local-model parameters with their uncertainties, are comprehensively updated using variational Bayesian (VB) approach. Subsequently, a numerical study and the irrigation channel are adopted to prove the validity of the presented method.

Control/physical systems co-design with spectral temporal logic specifications and its applications to MEMS

‘Co-design’ problems try to simultaneously design the physical and control components to improve the overall system performance. However, existing co-design paradigms cannot deal with complex frequency temporal domain specifications. In this paper, we investigate the co-design problem for a class of linear parameter-varying (LPV) systems with frequency temporal domain specifications. Firstly, the frequency temporal domain specifications are written in a formal language called spectral temporal logic (STL). Secondly, the satisfaction conditions of the spectral temporal logic specifications have been transformed into non-linear matrices inequality forms with necessary and sufficient conditions. Thirdly, the co-design problem is transformed into a non-convex optimisation problem with mixed-integer linear matrix inequalities (MILMIs) constraints, and then an iterative algorithm is proposed to solve the co-design problem with semidefinite programming (SDP). Finally, the performance of the algorithm and the expressiveness of spectral temporal logic are illustrated with the applications to micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS).

An event‐triggered subspace predictive control method for partially unknown linear parameter‐varying systems

AbstractThis article develops a novel event‐triggered subspace predictive control (ET‐SPC) method for discrete‐time linear parameter‐varying (LPV) systems with partially unknown system parameters. An event‐triggered law is developed to alleviate the heavy load of data transmission and computation in the conventional subspace predictive control methods for the LPV systems. The design of the event‐triggered law relies on the input‐to‐state stability (ISS) theory and applies the robust stability condition based on linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), which guarantees the stability of the proposed method. Consequently, the input component can be directly transmitted to the system without receding horizon optimization when the event‐triggered law evaluates that the system satisfies the stability condition. The simulation results illustrate its satisfactory performance, which indicates its potential application involving a considerable amount of data transmission and computation such as the network control systems (NCSs).

Genetic-Algorithm-Assisted Self-Scheduled Multidelay PIR Control: Experiments in a Car-Like Vehicle System.

The path-tracking control of an intelligent vehicle always suffers from the high-frequency measurement noises. To confront this issue, this work puts forward a novel delayed output-feedback implementation of proportional-integral-derivation (PID) control, which is called multidelay proportional-integral-retarded (PIR) control. The mathematical model of the vehicle system is represented in the form of a linear parameter-varying (LPV) system, which uses the car position as the scheduling variable for regulation. On this basis, the multidelay PIR controller is designed such that the tracking errors gradually converge to zero with the aid of the proportional and integral actions, and the harmful high-frequency measurement noises are attenuated by the retarded term consisting of a few delayed proportional actions. To tune the PIR controller parameters, linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), derived by applying Taylor's expansion to the retarded term, are used to compute the convex subcontroller gains. Then, the self-scheduled tracking controller is formulated as the weighted sum of convex subcontrollers, and the weight functions scheduled by the current position are adaptive to the different operational conditions. Experiments in real time using a laboratory car-like vehicle are employed to assess the performance of the proposed controller.

Sampled-Data State Estimation for LSTM.

This article first introduces a sampled-data state estimator design method for continuous-time long short-term memory (LSTM) neural networks with irregularly sampled output. To this end, the structure of the LSTM is addressed to obtain its dynamic equation. As a result, the LSTM neural network is modeled as a continuous-time linear parameter-varying system that is dependent on the gate units. For this system, the sampled-data Luenberger-and Arcak-type state estimator design methods are presented in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) by using the properties of the gate units. Lastly, the proposed method not only provides a numerical example for analyzing absolute stability but also demonstrates it in practice by applying a pre-trained behavior generation model of a robot manipulator.

An improved linear parameter-varying modeling, model order reduction, and control design process for flexible aircraft

This paper presents an improved process for the modeling, model order reduction (MOR), and control design of a flexible flying wing unmanned aerial vehicle based on the linear parameter-varying (LPV) technology. By applying the Lagrangian formulation and doublet lattice method, the aeroservoelastic (ASE) model of the flexible aircraft is first derived and then rewritten as an airspeed-dependent LPV system, which consists of rigid-body states, structural modes, aerodynamic states, etc. This leads to a high-order LPV model, and the stability of the system varies from stable to unstable when the speed of the aircraft exceeds the critical flutter speed. To facilitate the control design, an oblique projection-based MOR method is then adopted to reduce the order of the plant. Different from previous studies, the MOR method is improved to systematically generate a reduced-order LPV model with consistent states for both the stable and unstable dynamics parts. Finally, an output-feedback LPV controller is designed to simultaneously achieve the body freedom flutter suppression and longitudinal attitude control. Numerical simulation results show the effectiveness of the improved LPV-based ASE modeling, order reduction, and control design process for the flexible aircraft.

On the State-Feedback Controller Design for Polynomial Linear Parameter-Varying Systems with Pole Placement within Linear Matrix Inequality Regions

The present paper addresses linear parameter-varying systems with high-order time-varying parameter dependency known as polynomial LPV systems and their controller design. Throughout this work, a procedure ensuring a state-feedback controller from a parameterized linear matrix inequality (PLMI) solution is presented. As the main contribution of this paper, the controller is designed by considering the time-varying parameter rate as a tuning parameter with a continuous control gain in such a way that the closed-loop eigenvalues lie in a complex plane subset, with high-order time-varying parameters defining the system dynamics. Simulation results are presented, aiming to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller design.

An Integral Sliding–Mode–based Interval Predictive Control for Constrained LPV Systems

This paper presents the design of a robust controller, based on an integral sliding–mode control (ISMC) approach together with an interval predictor–based state feedback controller and a Model Predictive Control (MPC) scheme, for a class of uncertain linear parameter-varying (LPV) systems. The proposed controller deals with some state and input constraints and is robust to some external disturbances and parameter uncertainties. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed scheme is validated by numerical simulations.

Experimental linear parameter-varying model identification of an elastic kinetic roof structure

Elastic kinetic structures are a recent approach to design transformable lightweight structures. Their transformation is based on elastic bending, exploiting the compliant material behavior of the structural members. This enables transformable structures with a stable transformation process. However, due to their lightweight and flexible design, elastic kinetic structures are highly sensitive to static and dynamic disturbances. Moreover, such transformable structures exhibit a transformation state dependent dynamic behavior, due to geometric nonlinearities. Nevertheless, most of current research focuses on the principles of elastic kinetic transformation than on effective disturbance mitigation. The latter is usually designed based on low-order control-oriented models. This paper describes a system identification methodology, suitable to identify low-order models for the transformation state dependent dynamics of elastic kinetic structures. The system identification is carried out using a local approach in the linear parameter-varying (LPV) framework. For the identification of local linear time-invariant (LTI) models, the system realization using the information matrix (SRIM) method is applied. The collection of local LTI models is internally balanced using a balancing transformation, in order to represent the locally estimated models with respect to a common state–space basis. Via linear interpolation, an LPV system in grid-based representation is derived. This methodology is experimentally validated with data from an active hybrid roof structure prototype.

Robust output regulation of a class of smart actuators described by a minimum phase LPV dynamics

This paper presents a new control strategy for a class of minimum phase linear parameter-varying (LPV) systems representative of smart material actuators. In position control applications of such devices, one is typically interested in achieving output regulation with an arbitrary exponential decay rate. In principle, this problem can be tackled by assigning an exponential decay rate to the full system state, by means of well-established linear matrix inequalities (LMI) methods. For the class of systems under investigation, however, this approach leads to excessively large controller gains in case the desired decay rate is faster than the open-loop zero dynamics. In addition, the existence of unmeasurable state variables related to the material microstructure makes it not possible to directly implement full state feedback laws which are commonly adopted in LPV theory. To overcome these issues, a new design strategy is proposed. The key idea relies on arbitrarily shaping the output exponential decay rate without requiring fast convergence of the full state vector. This goal is achieved by means of a partial state feedback control law which solely depends on the measurable system states. A LMI algorithm is also developed to systematically address the design of the partial state feedback controller. The method is validated by means of simulations on generic examples, as well as via experiments on a mechatronic positioning system based on a dielectric elastomer membrane. In case the desired output convergence speed is faster than the open-loop zero dynamics, it is shown that the new approach leads to better transient behaviors and significantly smaller controller gains than standard LPV design techniques.

Fully Distributed Cooperative Output Regulation for Heterogeneous Linear Parameter-Varying Systems With Directed Graphs

In this paper, the cooperative output regulation problem of heterogeneous linear parameter-varying multi-agent systems under directed graphs is studied. It is assumed that only a few agents get access to the exosystem and no agent is aware of the topological information. For the purpose of avoiding directly employing global information, a finite-time fully distributed adaptive observer under directed communication graph is proposed to estimate the exosystem without using global information. In addition, a finite-time estimation algorithm is given to estimate the solutions of linear parameter-varying regulation equations without knowing exosystem matrix a prior. Based on which, a fully distributed cooperative output regulation controller is formulated so that the linear parameter-varying multi-agents system can achieve cooperative output regulation, which extends the applicability of the existing works of time-invariant systems to parameter-varying settings.