Robust control of angle of attack using dynamic inversion combined with quantitative feedback theory

Landing is a challenging flight phase for automatic control of fixed-wing aircraft. For unmanned air vehicles in particular, it is imperative that model uncertainty be considered in the control synthesis. These vehicles tend to have limited sensors and instrumentation yet must achieve sufficient performance in the presence of modeling uncertainties and exogenous inputs such as turbulence. Quantitative feedback theory has been reported in the literature for design of automatic landing control laws, but none of these controllers has been flight-tested. In this paper, quantitative feedback theory is employed to synthesize robust discrete-time controllers for automatic landing of an unmanned air vehicle. A low-cost flight vehicle with standard aileron, rudder, elevator, and throttle controls is used. Dynamic simulation is conducted using uncertain aircraft models and sensor noise profiles derived from flight hardware. Controllers are initially synthesized in deterministic simulations. Control validation is performed using a Monte Carlo analysis of stochastic simulations. Sources of uncertainty considered are sensor noise, model uncertainty, and static winds. Landing-phase simulations presented in this paper indicate a routinely high probability of a successful landing in relatively calm wind conditions. The flight-testing process is discussed, and time histories from two automatic landings are presented. Dynamic responses in flight test are found to be similar to the simulation, but a significant amount of control redesign is still required to achieve adequate experimental performance. The methodology is judged to be a promising candidate for an automatic landing controller for unmanned air vehicles.

Performance robustness has been an important issue in control and it has been increasingly recognised as an area of significance in many design applications. This issue has particular importance among the engineering community because it offers a solution to control system design problems for plant and processes that cannot be described by a single linear time-invariant model. The aim of this paper is to describe one of the methods available for robust control system design called Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) and discuss its application to engineering problems. QFT is a powerful design technique based on multi degree-of-freedom use of feedback. The basic building block of a multi-degree-of-freedom system is a two-degree-of-freedom system in which two controllers are present, one inside the feedback loop, used to reduce closed-loop uncertainty, and the other prior to the loop, used to shape the input in order to achieve the required output. To show the power of the method, the application to an aero engine described by a non-linear model, linearised at five operating conditions, is discussed. A comparison of the QFT method is also made with the H-infinity method. It is shown that the H-infinity formulation of the QFT problem can produce a more conservative solution than the QFT method.

A review is presented of the basis of the Horowitz quantitative feedback theory (QFT). It is shown that the basic assumptions of (QFT) have mathematical justification. However, necessary and sufficient conditions for the solvability of the QFT problem are presently not known. By reposing the QFT problem as an M-matrix design problem, it is possible to develop the desired existence conditions as well as simplify the design of the controllers which solve the QFT problem. Some preliminary results are presented and form the basis of ongoing work into the automation of the QFT design process.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

An active disturbance rejection control design for the distillation process with input saturation via quantitative feedback theory

: The purpose of this report is to determine the applicability of the Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) approach to designing the control laws for a modern military flight control system. This report documents a portion of the QFT research program, specifically, the implementation of a QFT design on a manned simulation of the NF-16D Variable Stability Inflight Simulator Test Aircraft (VISTA F-16). The control law design addresses the subsonic flight envelope of the VISTA F-16 including changes in aircraft configuration. The design was accomplished as a SISO longitudinal loop and a MIMO lateral loop, and incorporates pilot handling qualities within the specifications. Imbedding handling qualities in the system through prudent choice of control variable ensured that the performance specifications were met. Flexibility in the prefilter design allowed the closed loop response to be shaped for proper feel. The handling qualities were evaluated in a high fidelity, manned simulation of the system. The QFT design provided level 1 handling qualities per the specifications in the pitch channel. It did not provide level 1 handling qualities in the lateral channel, but the design requires minor modification to meet level 1.

Self-repairing control for UAVs via quantitative feedback theory and quantum control techniques

This work handles the design of a stabilization control for a high-speed craft in order to improve comfort and security in maritime transport. The goal is to damp the coupled dynamics of heave, pitch and roll by using active stabilization surfaces such as flaps, T-foil and fins. The methodology used is based on the Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) robust technique. Two approaches depending on the degree of coupling are presented. In the first approach, controllers for the longitudinal and transversal dynamics are designed separately and afterwards the actuator coupling is considered. The second approach provides a solution in cases where the effect of the actuator coupling is large. Hence, a combination of QFT and Eigenstructure Assignment (EA) methods is used. For both methods, time-domain simulations analyses for different conditions of sea state and angles of incidence provide satisfactory results and achieve damped responses. It is shown that robust techniques based on QFT methodology result feasible and very suitable since the problem can be applied to any angle of incidence and only one controller is required for any speed or sea state. Therefore they constitute attractive alternatives in the application of a stabilization control of an advanced marine system.

Quantitative feedback theory (QFT) is an engineering design method with strong practical value in the field of robust control and it is aimed at the objects with parameters changes. This paper introduces the basic principles and the design process of QFT, and for parameter uncertainty of the robot joint control, this paper designs the feedback-controller and the pre-filter of the system based on QFT. MATLAB simulation results show that the method is with good robust performance and dynamic performance in the robot joint control, and meets the performance indicators.

Loop shaping is the principle step for synthesising the quantitative feedback theory (QFT) based robust controllers. The controller assures performance robustness in the presence of plant uncertainties. This paper explores a template and bounds free approach for the automated synthesis of low order fixed structure QFT controller for a highly uncertain pneumatic servo actuator system. In this work, the loop-shaping problem has been posed as a multi-objective optimisation problem and solved using the multi-objective variant of the genetic algorithm. At the end of the design process, a set of Pareto optimal solutions (POS) are obtained, to aid the decision maker in choosing an ideal solution from the POS, use of level diagrams has been explored. The simulation of the results and time and frequency domain analysis has been carried out using MATLAB and the results obtained clearly unveil that the designed QFT controller offers robust behaviour over a range of plant's parametric uncertainty.

Implementing the QFT Method in the MATLAB Environment

In this work, the design of a quantitative PID controller is proposed for Ball and Beam system. This controller is designed to robustly compensate for the nonlinear and uncertain behavior of the ball and beam system. The PID controller parameters are obtained using the Black Hole Optimization (BHO) method subject to Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) consteaints. The QFT is used to design a simple and robust controller with a more desirable performance. The simulation results show that the proposed quantitative PID controller can effectively compensate the ball and beam system with robust behavior and desirable time response specifications. Index Terms— Robust control, Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT), PID, Ball and Beam System, Black Hole Optimization.

This paper presents the design of a robust proportional integral and derivative (PID) controller for a first-order lag with pure delay (FOLPD) model using particle swarm optimization (PSO)-enabled automated quantitative feedback theory (QFT). The plant model considered here can be approximated as a first-order system with a non-minimum phase (NMP) zero. Synthesis of controller for the FOLPD model via manual graphical technique involved in the QFT method is always a challenging and cumbersome task, because an NMP system stabilizes by a small gain. In this paper, a proposal is being presented to automate the loop-shaping phase in the QFT design method to synthesize a robust controller that can undertake the exact amount of plant uncertainty even in the presence of larger uncertainties than those assumed initially and can ensure a proper trade-off between robust stability and tracking performance specifications over the entire range of design frequencies. In this paper,s the PSO technique has been employed to tune the controller automatically,which can significantly reduce the computational effort compared with manual graphical techniques. It has also been demonstrated that this methodology not only automates loop shaping but also improves design quality and, most usefully, improves performance with optimally tuned PID controller in quantitative manner.

This paper presents quantitative feedback theory (QFT) based control and tracking of ball and beam system. QFT is a frequency domain approach using Nichols chart. This technique achieves desired robust design over a specified range of plant uncertainty. QFT is used for the design of robust controllers for the plant with uncertainties in the parameters, input/output disturbances and noises. Ball and beam system with parametric uncertainty is defined in state space form using QFT control toolbox and templates are generated. Then, based upon the performance and tracking specifications, bounds are determined. After determining the bounds, controller and prefilter are designed which fulfill the necessary control and tracking requirements. Additionally, a first order sliding mode controller (SMC) is intended for the comparison purpose.

The current interest in robust control has called into question the applicability of the quantitative feedback theory (QFT) robust design method introduced by Horowitz. A number of issues have been raised regarding inherent restrictions of both the design method and the uncertain plant set. Using a multivariable root-locus technique extended to uncertain systems, this paper shows that the QFT assumptions are indeed not restrictive and are in fact equivalent to other well-known conditions for robust stabilizability. Because QFT is one of the very few methods to specifically address the quantitative robust performance issue, these results should lead to better methods of developing new QFT-design software, as well as improved robust control methods to satisfy a priori quantitative performance bounds.

This paper proposes a robust controller for semi-active suspension system with actuator dynamics using the quantitative feedback theory. It solves the vehicle vibration attenuation problem using the novel cascade approach. The proposed cascade quantitative feedback theory control approach consists of the inner and outer loop. The damping force tracking of the magneto-rheological damper is chosen as the inner loop, while the outer loop is for the vibration attenuation. The inner loop is added to the control structure to enhance damping force tracking capabilities. The damping force of the magneto-rheological damper depends on the many factors, such as the complex and nonlinear (hysteresis) dynamics and operating temperature. The actuator (magneto-rheological damper) dynamics is well approximated by a first-order model with an uncertain time constant which captures the essential dynamics. The simulation case study is conducted on a realistic quarter car suspension system to show the effectiveness of the proposed cascade control method. The proposed method is found to deliver superior performances, in terms of ride comfort and road holding, over the skyhook, [Formula: see text] control, and single-loop quantitative feedback theory control under the bump, sine, and random road disturbances.