Iterative Learning Tracking for Multisensor Systems: A Weighted Optimization Approach

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.

A Probabilistically Quantized Learning Control Framework for Networked Linear Systems

In this article, we consider quantized learning control for linear networked systems with additive channel noise. Our objective is to achieve high tracking performance while reducing the communication burden on the communication network. To address this problem, we propose an integrated framework consisting of two modules: a probabilistic quantizer and a learning scheme. The employed probabilistic quantizer is developed by employing a Bernoulli distribution driven by the quantization errors. Three learning control schemes are studied, namely, a constant gain, a decreasing gain sequence satisfying certain conditions, and an optimal gain sequence that is recursively generated based on a performance index. We show that the control with a constant gain can only ensure the input error sequence to converge to a bounded sphere in a mean-square sense, where the radius of this sphere is proportional to the constant gain. On the contrary, we show that the control that employs any of the two proposed gain sequences drives the input error to zero in the mean-square sense. In addition, we show that the convergence rate associated with the constant gain is exponential, whereas the rate associated with the proposed gain sequences is not faster than a specific exponential trend. Illustrative simulations are provided to demonstrate the convergence rate properties and steady-state tracking performance associated with each gain, and their robustness against modeling uncertainties.

Transient Bipartite Synchronization for Cooperative-Antagonistic Multiagent Systems With Switching Topologies

This article aims at addressing the transient bipartite synchronization problem for cooperative-antagonistic multiagent systems with switching topologies. A distributed iterative learning control protocol is presented for agents by resorting to the local information from their neighbor agents. Through learning from other agents, the control input of each agent is updated iteratively such that the transient bipartite synchronization can be achieved over the targeted finite horizon under the simultaneously structurally balanced signed digraph. To be specific, all agents finally have the same output moduli at each time instant over the desired finite-time interval, which overcomes the influences caused by the antagonisms among agents and topology nonrepetitiveness along the iteration axis. As a counterpart, it is revealed that the stability can be achieved over the targeted finite horizon in the presence of a constantly structurally unbalanced signed digraph. Simulation examples are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the distributed learning results developed among multiple agents.

Accelerated Learning Control for Point-to-Point Tracking Systems

In this study, we investigate the accelerated learning control schemes for point-to-point tracking systems (PTSs) with measurement noise. The asymptotic convergence of the generated input sequence has been a long-standing open issue for point-to-point tracking problems because there are infinite possible input candidates that can drive the system dynamics to track the desired reference at specified time instants. An accelerated gradient algorithm and its generalized version with a novel direction regulation matrix are proposed, with the learning gain is adaptively triggered by the practical tracking errors. The learning gain remains constant at the early stage and begins to decrease after a certain number of iterations. The input sequence generated by the proposed scheme converges to a specified limit for any fixed initial input, with the limit being closest to the initial input, in a certain sense. Numerical simulations are provided to verify the theoretical results.

Learning Tracking Control Over Unknown Fading Channels Without System Information

A novel data-driven learning control scheme is proposed for unknown systems with unknown fading sensor channels. The fading randomness is modeled by multiplicative and additive random variables subject to certain unknown distributions. In this scheme, we propose an error transmission mode and an iterative gradient estimation method. Unlike the conventional transmission mode where the output is directly transmitted back to the controller, in the error transmission mode, we send the desired reference to the plant such that tracking errors can be calculated locally and then transmitted back through the fading channel. Using the faded tracking error data only, the gradient for updating input is iteratively estimated by a random difference technique along the iteration axis. This gradient acts as the updating term of the control signal; therefore, information on the system and the fading channel is no longer required. The proposed scheme is proved effective in tracking the desired reference under random fading communication environments. Theoretical results are verified by simulations.