Comparing multivariable uncertain model structures for data-driven robust control: Visualization and application to a continuously variable transmission

The selection of uncertainty structures is an important aspect of system identification for robust control. The aim of this paper is to provide insight into uncertain multivariable systems for robust control. A unified method for visualizing model sets is developed by generating Bode plots of multivariable uncertain systems, both in magnitude...

On the stability of the soft pendulum with affine curvature: open-loop, collocated closed-loop, and switching control

This letter investigates the stability properties of the soft inverted pendulum with affine curvature - a template model for nonlinear control of underactuated soft robots. We look at how changes in physical parameters affect stability and equilibrium. We give conditions under which zero dynamics corresponding to a collocated choice of the...

Quantification of Fractional Dynamical Stability of EEG Signals as a Bio-Marker for Cognitive Motor Control

Assessing the stability of biological system models has aided in uncovering a plethora of new insights in genetics, neuroscience, and medicine. In this paper, we focus on analyzing the stability of neurological signals, including electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. Interestingly, spatiotemporal discrete-time linear fractional-order systems ...

Covid-19 and Flattening the Curve: a Feedback Control Perspective

Many of the policies that were put into place during the Covid-19 pandemic had a common goal: to flatten the curve of the number of infected people so that its peak remains under a critical threshold. This letter considers the challenge of engineering a strategy that enforces such a goal using control theory. We introduce a simple formulation...

Piston-Driven Pneumatically-Actuated Soft Robots: modeling and backstepping control

Actuators’ dynamics have been so far mostly neglected when devising feedback controllers for continuum soft robots since the problem under the direct actuation hypothesis is already quite hard to solve. Directly considering actuation would have made the challenge too complex. However, these effects are, in practice, far from being negligible....

Exciting efficient oscillations in nonlinear mechanical systems through Eigenmanifold stabilization

Nonlinear modes are a well investigated concept in dynamical systems theory, extending the celebrated modal analysis of linear mechanical systems to nonlinear ones. This letter moves a first step in the direction of combining control theory and nonlinear modal analysis towards the implementation of hyper-efficient oscillatory behaviors in...

Computational reduction of optimal hybrid vehicle energy management

Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle is a way of solving hybrid powertrain optimal energy management. This paper presents an improvement of a classical implementation. The core of this improvement consists in relaxing the tolerance on some intermediate steps of the algorithm in order to reduce the number of iterations and thereby reducing the...

Exciting efficient oscillations in nonlinear mechanical systems through Eigenmanifold stabilization

Nonlinear modes are a well investigated concept in dynamical systems theory, extending the celebrated modal analysis of linear mechanical systems to nonlinear ones. The present work moves a first step in the direction of combining control theory and nonlinear modal analysis towards the implementation of hyper-efficient oscillatory behaviors...

Secure Control Applications in Smart Homes and Buildings

With today’s ongoing integration of heterogeneous building automation systems, increased comfort, energy efficiency, improved building management, sustainability as well as advanced applications such as active & assisted living scenarios become possible. These smart homes and buildings are implemented as decentralized systems, where embedded...