Abstract
The paper addresses the problem of reconciling the modern control paradigm developed by R. Kalman in the sixties of the past century, and the centenary error-based design of the proportional, integrative and derivative (PID) controllers. This is done with the help of the error loop whose stability is proved to be necessary and sufficient for the close-loop plant stability. The error loop is built by cascading the uncertain plant-to-model discrepancies (causal, parametric, initial state, neglected dynamics), which are driven by the design model output and by arbitrary bounded signals, with the control unit transfer functions. The embedded model control takes advantage of the error loop and its equations to design appropriate algorithms of the modern control theory (state predictor, control law, reference generator), which guarantee the error loop stability and performance. A simulated multivariate case study shows modeling and control design steps and the coherence of the predicted and simulated performance.
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The authors are grateful to Prof. Z. Gao, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, for his precious indications and suggestions.
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Enrico CANUTO was born in Varallo (Piemonte), Italy. He received a degree in Electrical Engineering from Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy, where he joined the staff as Professor of Automatic Control in 1983, after ten years as a research staff of the National Electrical Metrology Institute G. Ferraris, Turin, Italy. From 1982 to 1997 he contributed to conception and implementation of the data reduction of the European astrometric mission Hipparcos. Technological studies in view of scientific and drag-free space missions, like Gaia and GOCE provided the opportunity of applying Embedded Model Control to drag-free control and to electrooptics. He contributed to the conception, design and implementation of the Nanobalance interferometric thrust-stand, capable of submicronewton accuracy. Recently he has been involved in the design of the orbit, formation and attitude control of the Next Generation Gravity Mission of the European Space Agency. He contributed to the Manufacturing Algebra. Currently he is cooperating with the Centre for Gravity Experiments of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in the field of space gravity missions. In the summer 2015 he was visiting researcher at the Northern China Electrical Power University, Beijing, China, applying Embedded Model Control to hydraulic case studies. His research interests cover all the entire field of control problems that are challenging because of complexity, uncertainty and precision. He is one of the authors of the book “Spacecraft Dynamics and control: the Embedded Model Control approach”, Butterworth-Heinemann (Elsevier, 2018).
Carlo NOVARA received the Laurea degree in Physics from Universit?di Torino in 1996 and the Ph.D. degree in Computer and System Engineering from Politecnico di Torino in 2002. He held a visiting researcher position at University of California at Berkeley in 2001 and 2004. He is currently an Associate Professor at Politecnico di Torino, Italy. He is the author or co-author of more than 100 scientific publications in international journals and conferences. He has been involved in several national and international projects and in several research contracts in collaboration with Italian and European companies. He is the co-author of several patents in the automotive field. He is a member of the IEEE TC on System Identification and Adaptive Control, of the IFAC TC on Modelling, Identification and Signal Processing, and a founding member of the IEEE-CSS TC on Medical and Healthcare Systems. His research interests include nonlinear and LPV system identification, filtering/estimation, time series prediction, nonlinear control, data-driven methods, set membership methods, sparse methods, and automotive, aerospace, biomedical and sustainable energy applications.
Luigi COLANGELO received a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, in 2010, from Politecnico di Torino (Italy), and a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, in 2013, from Politecnico di Torino and Politecnico di Milano (Italy). In 2013, he joined the Department of Control and Computer Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino as a research assistant in the Space and Precision Automatics group. Then, in 2018, he received an ESA NPI-PhD in Control and Computer Engineering at Politecnico di Torino, in partnership with the European Space Agency and Thales Alenia Space, Turin, Italy. During his Ph.D. study, he worked on the modelling and control of spacecraft formation for the Next Generation Gravity Mission of the European Space Agency. In March 2018, he joined the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Politecnico di Torino, as a research affiliate. His main research areas include space guidance, navigation, and control, autonomous vehicles, and control theory.
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Canuto, E., Novara, C. & Colangelo, L. Embedded model control: Reconciling modern control theory and error-based control design. Control Theory Technol. 16, 261–283 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11768-018-8130-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11768-018-8130-1