Iterative Learning Control for a Flapping Wing Micro Aerial Vehicle Under Distributed Disturbances

Deep Reinforcement Learning Framework-Based Flow Rate Rejection Control of Soft Magnetic Miniature Robots

Soft magnetic miniature robots (SMMRs) have potential biomedical applications due to their flexible size and mobility to access confined environments. However, navigating the robot to a goal site with precise control performance and high repeatability in unstructured environments, especially in flow rate conditions, still remains a challenge. In this study, drawing inspiration from the control requirements of drug delivery and release to the goal lesion site in the presence of dynamic biofluids, we propose a flow rate rejection control strategy based on a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) framework to actuate an SMMR to achieve goal-reaching and hovering in fluidic tubes. To this end, an SMMR is first fabricated, which can be operated by an external magnetic field to realize its desired functionalities. Subsequently, a simulator is constructed based on neural networks to map the relationship between the applied magnetic field and robot locomotion states. With minimal prior knowledge about the environment and dynamics, a gated recurrent unit (GRU)-based DRL algorithm is formulated by considering the designed history state-action and estimated flow rates. In addition, the randomization technique is applied during training to distill the general control policy for the physical SMMR. The results of numerical simulations and experiments are illustrated to demonstrate the robustness and efficacy of the presented control framework. Finally, in-depth analyses and discussions indicate the potentiality of DRL for soft magnetic robots in biomedical applications.

Adaptive Learning Control Algorithms for Infinite-Duration Tracking

Learning control is applicable to systems that operate periodically or over finite time intervals. Currently, there is a lack of research results about learning control approaches to infinite-duration tracking, without requiring periodicity or repeatability. This article addresses the problem of adaptive learning control (ALC) for systems performing infinite-duration tasks. Instead of using integral adaptation, incremental adaptive mechanisms are exploited, by which the numerical integration for implementation can be avoided. The comparison with the conventional integral adaptive mechanisms indicates that the suggested methodology can be an alternative to the adaptive system designs. Using an error-tracking approach, the approximation-based backstepping design is carried out for systems in the strict-feedback form, where a novel integral Lyapunov function is shown to be efficient in the treatment of state-dependent control gain. Theoretical results for the performance analysis are presented in detail. In particular, the robust convergence of the tracking error is established, while the boundedness of the variables of the closed-loop system is characterized, with the aid of a key technical lemma. It is shown that the proposed control method can provide satisfactory tracking performance and simplify the controller designs. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate effectiveness of the learning control schemes.

Backstepping Technology-Based Adaptive Boundary ILC for an Input-Output-Constrained Flexible Beam

This article focuses on vibration suppression of an Euler-Bernoulli beam which is subject to external disturbance. By integrating backstepping technique, an adaptive boundary iterative learning control (ABILC) is put forward to suppressing vibration. The adaptive law is proposed for handing the parameter uncertainty and the iterative learning term is designed to deal with periodic disturbance. An auxiliary system is utilized to compensate the effect of input nonlinearity. In addition, a barrier Lyapunov function is adopted to deal with asymmetric output constraint. With the proposed control strategy, the stability of the closed-loop system is proven based on rigorous Lyapunov analysis. In the end, the effectiveness of the proposed control is illustrated through numerical simulation results.

Neural-Network-Based Adaptive Finite-Time Output Feedback Control for Spacecraft Attitude Tracking

This brief is concerned with neural network (NN)-based adaptive finite-time output feedback attitude tracking control for rigid spacecraft in the presence of actuator saturation, inertial uncertainty, and external disturbance. First, a neural state observer is designed to estimate the unknown state. Then, based on the estimated state, the adaptive neural finite-time command filtered backstepping (CFB) is applied to construct virtual control signal and controller with updating law. The finite-time command filter is given to avoid the computation complexity problem in traditional backstepping, and the compensation signals based on fractional power are constructed to remove filtering errors. Using Lyapunov stability theory, we show that the attitude tracking error (TE) can converge into the desired neighborhood of the origin in finite time and all the signals in the closed-loop system are bounded in finite time although input saturation exists. The numerical simulations are used to show the effectiveness of the given algorithm.

Real-Time Leak Location of Long-Distance Pipeline Using Adaptive Dynamic Programming

In traditional leak location methods, the position of the leak point is located through the time difference of pressure change points of both ends of the pipeline. The inaccurate estimation of pressure change points leads to the wrong leak location result. To address it, adaptive dynamic programming is proposed to solve the pipeline leak location problem in this article. First, a pipeline model is proposed to describe the pressure change along pipeline, which is utilized to reflect the iterative situation of the logarithmic form of pressure change. Then, under the Bellman optimality principle, a value iteration (VI) scheme is proposed to provide the optimal sequence of the nominal parameter and obtain the pipeline leak point. Furthermore, neural networks are built as the VI scheme structure to ensure the iterative performance of the proposed method. By transforming into the dynamic optimization problem, the proposed method adopts the estimation of the logarithmic form of pressure changes of both ends of the pipeline to locate the leak point, which avoids the wrong results caused by unclear pressure change points. Thus, it could be applied for real-time leak location of long-distance pipeline. Finally, the experiment cases are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Neural Network-Based Cooperative Trajectory Tracking Control for a Mobile Dual Flexible Manipulator

For a mobile dual flexible manipulator (MDFM) system, this article focuses on the problem of cooperative trajectory tracking under unknown dynamics and time-varying trajectories. The dynamic model of the wheeled mobile manipulator system in 2-D space is established. Taking into account the unmodeled dynamics of the system, unknown terms of the system are approximated by integrating the radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) structure. By introducing the servo system, the cooperative trajectory tracking control (CTTC) strategy is designed, which realizes the system's cooperative operation, time-varying trajectory tracking, and vibration suppression. The performance of the proposed control scheme is verified through theoretical analysis and numerical simulations.

Event-Triggered Prescribed Settling Time Consensus Compensation Control for a Class of Uncertain Nonlinear Systems With Actuator Failures

For a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with actuator failures, the event-triggered prescribed settling time consensus adaptive compensation control method is proposed. The unknown form of actuator failures may occur in practical applications, resulting in system instability or even control failure. In order to effectively deal with the above problems, a neural network adaptive control method is developed to ensure that the system states rapidly converge in the event of failure and compensate for the failures of actuator. Meanwhile, a nonlinear transformation function is introduced to make sure that the tracking error converges for the predefined interval within a prescribed settling time, which makes that the convergence time can be preset. Furthermore, a finite-time event-triggered compensation control strategy is established by the backstepping technology. Under this strategy, the system not only can rapidly stabilize in finite time but also can effectively save network bandwidth. In addition, the states of the system are globally uniformly bounded. Finally, the theoretical analysis and simulation experiments validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Review of the Flight Control Method of a Bird-like Flapping-Wing Air Vehicle

The Bird-like Flapping-wing Air Vehicle (BFAV) is a robotic innovation that emulates the flight patterns of birds. In comparison to fixed-wing and rotary-wing air vehicles, the BFAV offers superior attributes such as stealth, enhanced maneuverability, strong adaptability, and low noise, which render the BFAV a promising prospect for numerous applications. Consequently, it represents a crucial direction of research in the field of air vehicles for the foreseeable future. However, the flapping-wing vehicle is a nonlinear and unsteady system, posing significant challenges for BFAV to achieve autonomous flying since it is difficult to analyze and characterize using traditional methods and aerodynamics. Hence, flight control as a major key for flapping-wing air vehicles to achieve autonomous flight garners considerable attention from scholars. This paper presents an exposition of the flight principles of BFAV, followed by a comprehensive analysis of various significant factors that impact bird flight. Subsequently, a review of the existing literature on flight control in BFAV is conducted, and the flight control of BFAV is categorized into three distinct components: position control, trajectory tracking control, and formation control. Additionally, the latest advancements in control algorithms for each component are deliberated and analyzed. Ultimately, a projection on forthcoming directions of research is presented.

Conic Input Mapping Design of Constrained Optimal Iterative Learning Controller for Uncertain Systems

In this article, we study the optimal iterative learning control (ILC) for constrained systems with bounded uncertainties via a novel conic input mapping (CIM) design methodology. Due to the limited understanding of the process of interest, modeling uncertainties are generally inevitable, significantly reducing the convergence rate of the control systems. However, huge amounts of measured process data interacting with model uncertainties can easily be collected. Incorporating these data into the optimal controller design could unlock new opportunities to reduce the error of the current trail optimization. Based on several existing optimal ILC methods, we incorporate the online process data into the optimal and robust optimal ILC design, respectively. Our methodology, called CIM, utilizes the process data for the first time by applying the convex cone theory and maps the data into the design of control inputs. CIM-based optimal ILC and robust optimal ILC methods are developed for uncertain systems to achieve better control performance and a faster convergence rate. Next, rigorous theoretical analyses for the two methods have been presented, respectively. Finally, two illustrative numerical examples are provided to validate our methods with improved performance.

Distributed Model-Free Adaptive Control for Learning Nonlinear MASs Under DoS Attacks

This article addresses the distributed model-free adaptive control (DMFAC) problem for learning nonlinear multiagent systems (MASs) subjected to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. An improved dynamic linearization method is proposed to obtain an equivalent linear data model for learning systems. To alleviate the influence of DoS attacks, an attack compensation mechanism is developed. Based on the equivalent linear data model and the attack compensation mechanism, a novel learning-based DMFAC algorithm is developed to resist DoS attacks, which provides a unified framework to solve the leaderless consensus control, the leader-following consensus control, and the containment control problems. Finally, simulation examples are shown to illustrate the effectiveness of the developed DMFAC algorithm.

Fuzzy-Affine-Model-Based Sliding-Mode Control for Discrete-Time Nonlinear 2-D Systems via Output Feedback

This work investigates the issue of output-feedback sliding-mode control (SMC) for nonlinear 2-D systems by Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy-affine models. Via combining with the sliding surface, the sliding-mode dynamical properties are depicted by a singular piecewise-affine system. Through piecewise quadratic Lyapunov functions, new stability and robust performance analysis of the sliding motion are carried out. An output-feedback dynamic SMC design approach is developed to guarantee that the system states can converge to a neighborhood of the sliding surface. Simulation studies are given to verify the validity of the proposed scheme.

Leader-Follower Formation Learning Control of Discrete-Time Nonlinear Multiagent Systems

This article investigates the leader-follower formation learning control (FLC) problem for discrete-time strict-feedback multiagent systems (MASs). The objective is to acquire the experience knowledge from the stable leader-follower adaptive formation control process and improve the control performance by reusing the experiential knowledge. First, a two-layer control scheme is proposed to solve the leader-follower formation control problem. In the first layer, by combining adaptive distributed observers and constructed i_n -step predictors, the leader's future state is predicted by the followers in a distributed manner. In the second layer, the adaptive neural network (NN) controllers are constructed for the followers to ensure that all the followers track the predicted output of the leader. In the stable formation control process, the NN weights are verified to exponentially converge to their optimal values by developing an extended stability corollary of linear time-varying (LTV) system. Second, by constructing some specific "learning rules," the NN weights with convergent sequences are synthetically acquired and stored in the followers as experience knowledge. Then, the stored knowledge is reused to construct the FLC. The proposed FLC method not only solves the leader-follower formation problem but also improves the transient control performance. Finally, the validity of the presented FLC scheme is illustrated by simulations.

Iterative Rectifying Methods for Nonrepetitive Continuous-Time Learning Control Systems

To implement iterative learning control (ILC), one of the most fundamental hypotheses is the strict repetitiveness (i.e., iteration-independence) of the controlled systems, especially of their plant models. This hypothesis, however, results in difficulties of developing theoretic analysis methods and promoting practical applications for ILC, especially in the presence of continuous-time systems, which is the motivation of the current paper to cope with robust tracking problems of continuous-time ILC systems subject to nonrepetitive (i.e., iteration-dependent) uncertainties. Based on integrating an iterative rectifying mechanism, continuous-time ILC can effectively address the ill effects of the multiple nonrepetitive uncertainties that arise from the system models, initial states, load and measurement disturbances, and desired references. Furthermore, a robust convergence analysis method is presented for continuous-time ILC by combining a contraction mapping-based method and a system equivalence transformation method. It is disclosed that regardless of continuous-time ILC systems with zero or nonzero system relative degrees, the robust tracking tasks in the presence of nonrepetitive uncertainties can be accomplished, together with the boundedness of all the system trajectories being ensured. Two examples are included to verify the validity of our robust tracking results for nonrepetitive continuous-time ILC systems.

Adaptive Neural-Network-Based Fault-Tolerant Control for a Flexible String With Composite Disturbance Observer and Input Constraints

We propose an adaptive neural-network-based fault-tolerant control scheme for a flexible string considering the input constraint, actuator gain fault, and external disturbances. First, we utilize a radial basis function neural network to compensate for the actuator gain fault. In addition, an observer is used to handle composite disturbances, including unknown approximation errors and boundary disturbances. Then, an auxiliary system eliminates the effect of the input constraint. By integrating the composite disturbance observer and auxiliary system, adaptive fault-tolerant boundary control is achieved for an uncertain flexible string. Under rigorous Lyapunov stability analysis, the vibration scope of the flexible string is guaranteed to remain within a small compact set. Numerical simulations verify the high control performance of the proposed control scheme.

Robust Inverse Q-Learning for Continuous-Time Linear Systems in Adversarial Environments

This article proposes robust inverse Q -learning algorithms for a learner to mimic an expert's states and control inputs in the imitation learning problem. These two agents have different adversarial disturbances. To do the imitation, the learner must reconstruct the unknown expert cost function. The learner only observes the expert's control inputs and uses inverse Q -learning algorithms to reconstruct the unknown expert cost function. The inverse Q -learning algorithms are robust in that they are independent of the system model and allow for the different cost function parameters and disturbances between two agents. We first propose an offline inverse Q -learning algorithm which consists of two iterative learning loops: 1) an inner Q -learning iteration loop and 2) an outer iteration loop based on inverse optimal control. Then, based on this offline algorithm, we further develop an online inverse Q -learning algorithm such that the learner mimics the expert behaviors online with the real-time observation of the expert control inputs. This online computational method has four functional approximators: a critic approximator, two actor approximators, and a state-reward neural network (NN). It simultaneously approximates the parameters of Q -function and the learner state reward online. Convergence and stability proofs are rigorously studied to guarantee the algorithm performance.

Observer-Based Asynchronous Control of Nonlinear Systems With Dynamic Event-Based Try-Once-Discard Protocol

This work investigates the observer-based asynchronous control of discrete-time nonlinear systems with network-induced communication constraints. To avoid the data collisions and side effects in a constrained communication channel, a novel dynamic event-based weighted try-once-discard (DEWTOD) protocol is proposed. In contrast to the existing protocols, the DEWTOD scheduling regulates whether the sampling instant to release and which node to transmit the sampling instant simultaneously. In light of a hidden Markov model, the time-varying detection probability matrix is characterized by a polytopic set. By resorting to the polytopic-structured Lyapunov functional, sufficient conditions are derived such that the closed-loop dynamic is mean-square exponentially stable, and the observer-based controller is designed. In the end, two numerical examples are provided to explicate the validity of the attained methodology.

Visual Servoing of Flexible-Link Manipulators by Considering Vibration Suppression Without Deformation Measurements

Visual servoing and vibration suppression of spatial flexible-link manipulators with a fixed camera setup are addressed in this article. The singular perturbation method is adopted to decouple the dynamic equations of the flexible manipulator; hence, two subsystems that represent the rigid robot motion and flexible-link vibration are obtained, respectively. Then, for the slow subsystem related to the rigid motion, an image-based controller is designed to converge the image errors with the consideration of compensating for the errors of approximating the Jacobian matrix. For the fast subsystem corresponding to the elastic vibration, to eliminate the requirements of measuring the vibration states, an observer is designed to estimate the fast states and then a feedback controller of the fast subsystem is presented to suppress the vibration of the flexible manipulator by using the estimation values. The closed-loop stabilities of the slow and fast subsystem are both proved by employing the Lyapunov theory. Numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller, which shows that the image errors approach zero with the vibration of the flexible manipulator damped out simultaneously.

Observer-Based Adaptive Fuzzy Control for Nonlinear State-Constrained Systems Without Involving Feasibility Conditions

For nonlinear full-state-constrained systems with unmeasured states, an adaptive output feedback control strategy is developed. The main challenge of this article is how to avoid that the unmeasured states exceed the constrained spaces. To achieve a good tracking performance for the considered systems, a stable state observer is structured to estimate unmeasured states which are not available in the control design. In addition, the constraints existing in most practical engineering are the source of reducing control performance and causing the system instability. The main limitation of current barrier Lyapunov functions is the feasibility conditions for intermediate controllers. The nonlinear mappings are used to achieve the satisfaction of full-state constraints directly and avoid feasibility conditions for intermediate controllers. By the Lyapunov theorem, the closed-loop system stability is proven. Simulation results are given to confirm the validity of the developed strategy.

Adaptive Neural Network Control of a Flexible Spacecraft Subject to Input Nonlinearity and Asymmetric Output Constraint

This article focuses on the vibration reducing and angle tracking problems of a flexible unmanned spacecraft system subject to input nonlinearity, asymmetric output constraint, and system parameter uncertainties. Using the backstepping technique, a boundary control scheme is designed to suppress the vibration and regulate the angle of the spacecraft. A modified asymmetric barrier Lyapunov function is utilized to ensure that the output constraint is never transgressed. Considering the system robustness, neural networks are used to handle the system parameter uncertainties and compensate for the effect of input nonlinearity. With the proposed adaptive neural network control law, the stability of the closed-loop system is proved based on the Lyapunov analysis, and numerical simulations are carried out to show the validity of the developed control scheme.

Security data-driven iterative learning control for unknown nonlinear systems with hybrid attacks and fading measurements

To achieve the stabilization objective of a class of nonlinear systems with unknown dynamics, this paper studies the security data-driven control problem under iterative learning schemes, where the faded channels are suffering from randomly hybrid attacks. The networked attacks try to obstruct the data transmission by injecting the false data. The plant is transformed into a dynamic data-model with the iteration-related linearization method. Then, two data-driven control methods, including a compensation scheme multiplied by increasing gains, are designed by using incomplete I/O signals. The effectiveness of the algorithms and the influence brought by stochastic issues are analyzed theoretically. Finally, a numerical simulation and a tracking example of agricultural vehicles illustrate the validity of the design.

Locally Weighted Principal Component Analysis-Based Multimode Modeling for Complex Distributed Parameter Systems

Global principal component analysis (PCA) has been successfully introduced for modeling distributed parameter systems (DPSs). In spite of the merits, this method is not feasible due to parameter variations and multiple operating domains. A novel multimode spatiotemporal modeling method based on the locally weighted PCA (LW-PCA) method is developed for large-scale highly nonlinear DPSs with parameter variations, by separating the original dataset into tractable subsets. This method implements the decomposition by making full use of the dependence among subset densities. First, the spatiotemporal snapshots are divided into multiple different Gaussian components by using a finite Gaussian mixture model (FGMM). Once the components are derived, a Bayesian inference strategy is then applied to calculate the posterior probabilities of each spatiotemporal snapshot belonging to each component, which will be regarded as the local weights of the LW-PCA method. Second, LW-PCA is adopted to calculate each locally weighted snapshot matrix, and the corresponding local spatial basis functions (SBFs) can be generated by the PCA method. Third, all the local temporal models are estimated using the extreme learning machine (ELM). Thus, the local spatiotemporal models can be produced with local SBFs and corresponding temporal model. Finally, the original system can be approximated using the sum form of each local spatiotemporal model. Unlike global PCA, which uses global SBFs to construct a global spatiotemporal model, LW-PCA approximates the original system by multiple local reduced SBFs. Numerical simulations verify the effectiveness of the developed multimode spatiotemporal model.

Adaptive Neural Network Fixed-Time Control Design for Bilateral Teleoperation With Time Delay

In this article, subject to time-varying delay and uncertainties in dynamics, we propose a novel adaptive fixed-time control strategy for a class of nonlinear bilateral teleoperation systems. First, an adaptive control scheme is applied to estimate the upper bound of delay, which can resolve the predicament that delay has significant impacts on the stability of bilateral teleoperation systems. Then, radial basis function neural networks (RBFNNs) are utilized for estimating uncertainties in bilateral teleoperation systems, including dynamics, operator, and environmental models. Novel adaptation laws are introduced to address systems' uncertainties in the fixed-time convergence settings. Next, a novel adaptive fixed-time neural network control scheme is proposed. Based on the Lyapunov stability theory, the bilateral teleoperation systems are proved to be stable in fixed time. Finally, simulations and experiments are presented to verify the validity of the control algorithm.

Neural Networks Enhanced Optimal Admittance Control of Robot-Environment Interaction Using Reinforcement Learning

In this paper, an adaptive admittance control scheme is developed for robots to interact with time-varying environments. Admittance control is adopted to achieve a compliant physical robot-environment interaction, and the uncertain environment with time-varying dynamics is defined as a linear system. A critic learning method is used to obtain the desired admittance parameters based on the cost function composed of interaction force and trajectory tracking without the knowledge of the environmental dynamics. To deal with dynamic uncertainties in the control system, a neural-network (NN)-based adaptive controller with a dynamic learning framework is developed to guarantee the trajectory tracking performance. Experiments are conducted and the results have verified the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Iterative Learning Control With Data-Driven-Based Compensation

The robust iterative learning control (RILC) can deal with the systems with unknown time-varying uncertainty to track a repeated reference signal. However, the existing robust designs consider all the possibilities of uncertainty, which makes the design conservative and causes the controlled process converging to the reference trajectory slowly. To eliminate this weakness, a data-driven method is proposed. The new design intends to employ more information from the past input-output data to compensate for the robust control law and then to improve performance. The proposed control law is proved to guarantee convergence and accelerate the convergence rate. Ultimately, the experiments on a robot manipulator have been conducted to verify the good convergence of the trajectory errors under the control of the proposed method.

Vibration Control for Flexible Manipulators With Event-Triggering Mechanism and Actuator Failures

This article focuses on flexible single-link manipulators (FSLMs) under boundary control and in-domain control. The actuators of the system include the dc motor at the end of the joint and m piezoelectric controllers installed at the flexible link, which is regarded as an Euler-Bernoulli beam. The problem of the infinite number of actuator failures, including the partial loss of the effectiveness and total loss of effectiveness, is solved by the adaptive compensation method. By introducing the relative threshold strategy, the event-triggered control (ETC) scheme is proposed to achieve angle regulation and vibration suppression while reducing the communication burden between the controllers and the actuators. The Lyapunov direct method is utilized to prove that the system is uniformly ultimately bounded and both the angular tracking error and elastic displacement converge to a neighborhood of zero. Numerical simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control law.

Adaptive Neural Network Control for Full-State Constrained Robotic Manipulator With Actuator Saturation and Time-Varying Delays

This article proposes an adaptive neural network (NN) control method for an n -link constrained robotic manipulator. Driven by actual demands, manipulator and actuator dynamics, state and input constraints, and unknown time-varying delays are taken into account simultaneously. NNs are employed to approximate unknown nonlinearities. Time-varying barrier Lyapunov functions are utilized to cope with full-state constraints. By resorting to saturation function and Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals, the effects of actuator saturation and time delays are eliminated. It is proved that all the closed-loop signals are semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded, full-state constraints and actuator saturation are not violated, and error signals remain within compact sets around zero. Simulation studies are given to demonstrate the validity and advantages of this control scheme.

Adaptive Fault-Tolerant Boundary Control for a Flexible String With Unknown Dead Zone and Actuator Fault

This study focuses on an adaptive fault-tolerant boundary control (BC) for a flexible string (FS) in the presence of unknown external disturbances, dead zone, and actuator fault. To tackle these issues, by employing some transformations, a part of the unknown dead zone and external disturbance can be regarded as a composite disturbance. Subsequently, an adaptive fault-tolerant BC is developed by utilizing strict formula derivations to compensate for unknown composite disturbance, dead zone, and actuator fault in the FS system. Under the proposed control strategy, the closed-loop system proves to be uniformly ultimately bounded, and the vibration amplitude is guaranteed to converge ultimately to a small compact set by choosing suitable design parameters. Finally, a numerical simulation is performed to demonstrate the control performance of the proposed scheme.

A Data-Driven ILC Framework for a Class of Nonlinear Discrete-Time Systems

In this article, we propose a data-driven iterative learning control (ILC) framework for unknown nonlinear nonaffine repetitive discrete-time single-input-single-output systems by applying the dynamic linearization (DL) technique. The ILC law is constructed based on the equivalent DL expression of an unknown ideal learning controller in the iteration and time domains. The learning control gain vector is adaptively updated by using a Newton-type optimization method. The monotonic convergence on the tracking errors of the controlled plant is theoretically guaranteed with respect to the 2-norm under some conditions. In the proposed ILC framework, existing proportional, integral, and derivative type ILC, and high-order ILC can be considered as special cases. The proposed ILC framework is a pure data-driven ILC, that is, the ILC law is independent of the physical dynamics of the controlled plant, and the learning control gain updating algorithm is formulated using only the measured input-output data of the nonlinear system. The proposed ILC framework is effectively verified by two illustrative examples on a complicated unknown nonlinear system and on a linear time-varying system.

An Efficient Iterative Learning Predictive Functional Control for Nonlinear Batch Processes

Iterative learning model-predictive control (ILMPC) is very popular in controlling the batch process since it possesses not only the learning ability along batches but also the strong time-domain tracking properties. However, for a fast batch process with strong nonlinear dynamics, the application of the ILMPC is challenging due to the difficulty in balancing the computational efficiency and tracking accuracy. In this article, an efficient iterative learning predictive functional control (ILPFC) is proposed. The original nonlinear system is linearized along the reference trajectory to derive a 2-D tracking-error predictive model. The linearization error is compensated by utilizing the Lipschitz condition so that the objective function can be formulated with the upper bound of the actual tracking error. For enhancing control efficiency, predictive functional control (PFC) is applied in the time domain, which reduces the dimension of the decision variable in order to effectively cut down the computational burden. The stability and convergence of this ILPFC with terminal constraint are analyzed theoretically. Simulations on an unmanned ground vehicle and a typical fast batch reactor verify the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm.

Composite-Learning-Based Adaptive Neural Control for Dual-Arm Robots With Relative Motion

This article presents an adaptive control method for dual-arm robot systems to perform bimanual tasks under modeling uncertainties. Different from the traditional symmetric bimanual robot control, we study the dual-arm robot control with relative motions between robotic arms and a grasped object. The robot system is first divided into two subsystems: a settled manipulator system and a tool-used manipulator system. Then, a command filtered control technique is developed for trajectory tracking and contact force control. In addition, to deal with the inevitable dynamic uncertainties, a radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) is employed for the robot, with a novel composite learning law to update the NN weights. The composite learning is mainly based on an integration of the historic data of NN regression such that information of the estimate error can be utilized to improve the convergence. Moreover, a partial persistent excitation condition is employed to ensure estimation convergence. The stability analysis is performed by using the Lyapunov theorem. Numerical simulation results demonstrate the validity of the proposed control and learning algorithm.

Enhancement of Closed-Loop Cognitive Stress Regulation using Supervised Control Architectures

Goal: We propose novel supervised control architectures to regulate the cognitive stress state and close the loop. Methods: We take information present in underlying neural impulses of skin conductance signals and employ model-based control techniques to close the loop in a state-space framework. For performance enhancement, we establish a supervised knowledge-based layer to update control system in real time. In the supervised architecture, the controller parameters are being updated in real-time. Results: Statistical analyses demonstrate the efficiency of supervised control architectures in improving the closed-loop results while maintaining stress levels within a desired range with more optimized control efforts. The model-based approaches would guarantee the control system-perspective criteria such as stability and optimality, and the proposed supervised knowledge-based layer would further enhance their efficiency. Conclusion: Outcomes in this in silico study verify the proficiency of the proposed supervised architectures to be implemented in the real world.

Data-Driven Performance-Prescribed Reinforcement Learning Control of an Unmanned Surface Vehicle

An unmanned surface vehicle (USV) under complicated marine environments can hardly be modeled well such that model-based optimal control approaches become infeasible. In this article, a self-learning-based model-free solution only using input-output signals of the USV is innovatively provided. To this end, a data-driven performance-prescribed reinforcement learning control (DPRLC) scheme is created to pursue control optimality and prescribed tracking accuracy simultaneously. By devising state transformation with prescribed performance, constrained tracking errors are substantially converted into constraint-free stabilization of tracking errors with unknown dynamics. Reinforcement learning paradigm using neural network-based actor-critic learning framework is further deployed to directly optimize controller synthesis deduced from the Bellman error formulation such that transformed tracking errors evolve a data-driven optimal controller. Theoretical analysis eventually ensures that the entire DPRLC scheme can guarantee prescribed tracking accuracy, subject to optimal cost. Both simulations and virtual-reality experiments demonstrate the remarkable effectiveness and superiority of the proposed DPRLC scheme.

Iterative Learning Model-Free Control for Networked Systems With Dual-Direction Data Dropouts and Actuator Faults

In this article, we study the tracking problem for networked nonlinear discrete systems with actuator faults and dual-direction data dropouts. A novel adaptive fault-tolerant iterative learning model-free control strategy is designed. First, by utilizing the method called compact form dynamic linearization, the original nonlinear system model is transformed into an equivalent data-driven model, and the data model contains only one unknown parameter. Both the actuator fault and the system dynamics information are included in this parameter. Then, to model the physical processes of data dropout, a new mathematical relationship is constructed. Furthermore, an adaptive fault-tolerant iterative learning tracking control scheme is developed with only randomly received input/output data. Noting that the high learning rate or convergence rate is required in actual applications, a new varying parameter approach is designed to improve such rate. Finally, it is rigorously proved that the closed loop is stable in the sense of uniform ultimate boundedness, and numerical simulation results are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the designed control strategy.

Co-carrying an object by robot in cooperation with humans using visual and force sensing

Human-robot collaboration poses many challenges where humans and robots work inside a shared workspace. Robots collaborating with humans indirectly bring difficulties for accomplishing co-carrying tasks. In our work, we focus on co-carrying an object by robots in cooperation with humans using visual and force sensing. A framework using visual and force sensing is proposed for human-robot co-carrying tasks, enabling robots to actively cooperate with humans and reduce human efforts. Visual sensing for perceiving human motion is involved in admittance-based force control, and a hybrid controller combining visual servoing with force feedback is proposed which generates refined robot motion. The proposed framework is validated by a co-carrying task in experiments. There exist two phases in experimental processes: in Phase 1, the human hand holds one side of the box object, and the robot gripper of the Baxter robot automatically approaches to the other side of the box object and finally holds it; in Phase 2, the human and the Baxter robot co-carry the box object over a distance to different target positions. This article is part of the theme issue 'Towards symbiotic autonomous systems'.

Adaptive Neural-Network Boundary Control for a Flexible Manipulator With Input Constraints and Model Uncertainties

This article develops an adaptive neural-network (NN) boundary control scheme for a flexible manipulator subject to input constraints, model uncertainties, and external disturbances. First, a radial basis function NN method is utilized to tackle the unknown input saturations, dead zones, and model uncertainties. Then, based on the backstepping approach, two adaptive NN boundary controllers with update laws are employed to stabilize the like-position loop subsystem and like-posture loop subsystem, respectively. With the introduced control laws, the uniform ultimate boundedness of the deflection and angle tracking errors for the flexible manipulator are guaranteed. Finally, the control performance of the developed control technique is examined by a numerical example.

Large-Angle Velocity-Free Attitude Tracking Control of Satellites: An Observer-Free Framework

The challenging problem on the design of a large-angle attitude tracking controller for rigid satellites without angular velocity measurements is investigated in this article. An efficient and practical angular velocity-free control strategy with a simple, yet efficient structure is proposed. The attitude tracking maneuver is accomplished with the desired attitude pointing accuracy ensured despite disturbances. Compared with the existing observer-based velocity-free schemes, no observer is embedded into the control scheme. The developed approach can be implemented online and in real time. It does not require expensive online computation, enabling its convenient application to practical large-angle attitude tracking maneuvers. The presented control solution is numerically and experimentally validated on a rigid satellite testbed.

Convergence Analysis of Robust Iterative Learning Control Against Nonrepetitive Uncertainties: System Equivalence Transformation

This article is concerned with the robust convergence analysis of iterative learning control (ILC) against nonrepetitive uncertainties, where the contradiction between convergence conditions for the output tracking error and the input signal (or error) is addressed. A system equivalence transformation (SET) is proposed for robust ILC such that given any desired reference trajectories, the output tracking problems for general nonsquare multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) systems can be equivalently transformed into those for the specific class of square MIMO systems with the same input and output numbers. As a benefit of SET, a unified condition is only needed to guarantee both the uniform boundedness of all system signals and the robust convergence of the output tracking error, which avoids causing the condition contradiction problem in implementing the double-dynamics analysis approach to ILC. Simulation examples are included to demonstrate the validity of our established robust ILC results.

Reinforcement Learning-Based Optimal Tracking Control of an Unknown Unmanned Surface Vehicle

In this article, a novel reinforcement learning-based optimal tracking control (RLOTC) scheme is established for an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) in the presence of complex unknowns, including dead-zone input nonlinearities, system dynamics, and disturbances. To be specific, dead-zone nonlinearities are decoupled to be input-dependent sloped controls and unknown biases that are encapsulated into lumped unknowns within tracking error dynamics. Neural network (NN) approximators are further deployed to adaptively identify complex unknowns and facilitate a Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation that formulates optimal tracking. In order to derive a practically optimal solution, an actor-critic reinforcement learning framework is built by employing adaptive NN identifiers to recursively approximate the total optimal policy and cost function. Eventually, theoretical analysis shows that the entire RLOTC scheme can render tracking errors that converge to an arbitrarily small neighborhood of the origin, subject to optimal cost. Simulation results and comprehensive comparisons on a prototype USV demonstrate remarkable effectiveness and superiority.

Simplifying Complex Network Stability Analysis via Hierarchical Node Aggregation and Optimal Periodic Control

In this study, the stability of a hierarchical network with delayed output is discussed by applying a kind of optimal periodic control. To reduce the number of the nodes of the original hierarchical network, an aggregation algorithm is first presented to take some nodes with the same information as an aggregated node. Furthermore, the stability of the original hierarchical network can be guaranteed by the optimal periodic control of the aggregated hierarchical network. Then, an optimal control scheme is proposed to reduce the bandwidth waste in information transmission. In the control scheme, the time sequence is separated into two parts: the deterministic segment and the dynamic segment. With the optimal control scheme, two targets are achieved: 1) the outputs of the original and aggregated hierarchical system are both asymptotically stable and 2) the nodes with slow convergent rate can catch up with the convergence speeds of other nodes.

Trajectory Generation by Chance-Constrained Nonlinear MPC With Probabilistic Prediction

Continued great efforts have been dedicated toward high-quality trajectory generation based on optimization methods; however, most of them do not suitably and effectively consider the situation with moving obstacles; and more particularly, the future position of these moving obstacles in the presence of uncertainty within some possible prescribed prediction horizon. To cater to this rather major shortcoming, this work shows how a variational Bayesian Gaussian mixture model (vBGMM) framework can be employed to predict the future trajectory of moving obstacles; and then with this methodology, a trajectory generation framework is proposed which will efficiently and effectively address trajectory generation in the presence of moving obstacles, and incorporate the presence of uncertainty within a prediction horizon. In this work, the full predictive conditional probability density function (PDF) with mean and covariance is obtained and, thus, a future trajectory with uncertainty is formulated as a collision region represented by a confidence ellipsoid. To avoid the collision region, chance constraints are imposed to restrict the collision probability, and subsequently, a nonlinear model predictive control problem is constructed with these chance constraints. It is shown that the proposed approach is able to predict the future position of the moving obstacles effectively; and, thus, based on the environmental information of the probabilistic prediction, it is also shown that the timing of collision avoidance can be earlier than the method without prediction. The tracking error and distance to obstacles of the trajectory with prediction are smaller compared with the method without prediction.

Distributed Cooperative Learning Control of Uncertain Multiagent Systems With Prescribed Performance and Preserved Connectivity

For an uncertain multiagent system, distributed cooperative learning control exerting the learning capability of the control system in a cooperative way is one of the most important and challenging issues. This article aims to address this issue for an uncertain high-order nonlinear multiagent system with guaranteed transient performance and preserved initial connectivity under an undirected and static communication topology. The considered multiagent system has an identical structure and the uncertain agent dynamics are estimated by localized radial basis function (RBF) neural networks (NNs) in a cooperative way. The NN weight estimates are rigorously proven to converge to small neighborhoods of their common optimal values along the union of all agents' trajectories by a deterministic learning theory. Consequently, the associated uncertain dynamics can be locally accurately identified and can be stored and represented by constant RBF networks. Using the stored knowledge on identified system dynamics, an experience-based distributed controller is proposed to improve the control performance and reduce the computational burden. The theoretical results are demonstrated on an application to the formation control of a group of unmanned surface vehicles.

Neuro-learning-based adaptive control for state-constrained strict-feedback systems with unknown control direction

A neural networks (NNs)-based learning policy is proposed for strict-feedback nonlinear systems with asymmetric full-state constraints and unknown gain directions. A state-constrained function is introduced such that the proposed adaptive control policy works for systems with constraints or without constraints in a unified structure. Furthermore, the unified state-constrained function can also deal with symmetric and asymmetric constraints without changing adaptive structures, which also avoids discontinuous actions. With Nussbaum gain technique and NNs-based approximation technique, the proposed control method can also effectively deal with the unknown signs of control gains, and matched and mismatched uncertainties are also solved by NN approximation technique. According to the Lyapunov theory, the tracking errors can be proved to be semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded (SGUUB). Finally the effectiveness of the proposed scheme is validated by numerical simulations.

Check-Valve Design in Enhancing Aerodynamic Performance of Flapping Wings

A flapping wing micro air vehicle (FWMAV) demands high lift and thrust generation for a desired payload. In view of this, the present work focuses on a novel way of enhancing the lift characteristics through integrating check-valves in the flapping wing membrane. Modal analysis and static analysis are performed to determine the natural frequency and deformation of the check-valve. Based on the inference, the check-valve opens and closes during the upstroke flapping and downstroke flapping, respectively. Wind tunnel experiments were conducted by considering the two cases of wing design, i.e., with and without a check-valve for various driving voltages, wind speeds and different inclined angles. A 20 cm-wingspan polyethylene terephthalate (PET) membrane wing with two check-valves, composed of central disc-cap with radius of 7.43 mm, supported by three S-beams, actuated by Evans mechanism to have 90° stroke angle, is considered for the 10 gf (gram force) FWMAV study. The aerodynamic performances, such as lift and net thrust for these two cases, are evaluated. The experimental result demonstrates that an average lift of 17 gf is generated for the case where check-valves are attached on the wing membrane to operate at 3.7 V input voltage, 30° inclined angle and 1.5 m/s wind speed. It is inferred that sufficient aerodynamic benefit with 68% of higher lift is attained for the wing membrane incorporated with check-valve.

Adaptive Neural-Network Control of MIMO Nonaffine Nonlinear Systems With Asymmetric Time-Varying State Constraints

In this paper, a novel robust adaptive barrier Lyapunov function (BLF)-based backstepping controller has been proposed for a class of interconnected, multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) unknown nonaffine nonlinear systems with asymmetric time-varying (ATV) state constraints. The design involves a neural-network-based online approximator to cope with uncertain dynamics of the system. To tune its weights, a novel adaptive law is proposed based on the Hadamard product. A theorem has also been proposed to have the bounds on virtual control signals beforehand. This theorem eliminates the need for tedious offline computation for the feasibility condition on the virtual controller in BLF-based controller design. To overcome the problem of unknown control gain in the nonaffine system, Nussbaum gain has been used during the design. A simulation study on the robot manipulator in task space has been performed to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.