In the paper multiobjective robust controller synthesis problem for nonlinear mechanical system described by Lagrange’s equations of the second kind is considered. Such tasks have numerous practical applications, for example in controller design of robotic systems and gyro-stabilized platforms. In practice, we often have to use uncertain mathematical plant models in controller design. Therefore, ensuring robustness in presence of parameters perturbations and unknown external disturbances is an important requirement for designed systems. Much of modern robust control theory is linear. When the actual system exhibits nonlinear behavior, nonlinearities are usually included in the uncertainty set of the plant. A disadvantage of this approach is that resulting controllers may be too conservative especially when nonlinearities are significant. The nonlinear H∞ optimal control theory developed on the basis of differential game theory is a natural extension of the linear robust control theory. Nonlinear theory methods ensure robust stability of designed control systems. However, to determine nonlinear H∞-control law, the partial differential equation have to be solved which is a rather complicated task. In addition, it is difficult to ensure robust performance of controlled processes when using this method. In this paper, methods of linear parameter-varying (LPV) systems are used to synthesize robust control law. It is shown, that Lagrange system may be adequately represented in the form of quasi-LPV model. From the computational point of view, the synthesis procedure is reduced to convex optimization techniques under constraints expressed in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Measured parameters are incorporated in the control law, thus ensuring continuous adjustment of the controller parameters to the current plant dynamics and better performance of control processes in comparison with H∞-regulators. Furthermore, the use of the LMIs allows to take into account the transient performance requirements in the controller synthesis. Since the quasi-LPV system depends continuously on the parameter vector, the LMI system is infinite-dimensional. This infinitedimensional system is reduced to a finite set of LMIs by introducing a polytopic LPV representation. The example of multiobjective robust control synthesis for electro-optical device’s line of sight pointing and stabilization system suspended in two-axes inertially stabilized platform is given.
Discussion: “Analysis of a Nonlinear Mechanical System With Three Degrees of Freedom” (Hovanessian, S. A., 1959, ASME J. Appl. Mech., 26, pp. 546–548)
