In recent years, combat aircraft with external stores have experienced a decrease in their mission capabilities due to lack of robustness of the current passive wing/store flutter suppression system to both structured as well as unstructured uncertainties. The research program proposed here is to investigate the feasibility of using a piezoceramic wafer actuator for active control of store flutter with the goal of producing a robust feedback system that demonstrates increased performance as well as robustness to modeling errors. This approach treats the actuator as an active soft-decoupling tie between the wing and store, thus isolating the wing from store pitch inertia effects. Advanced control techniques are used to assess the nominal performance and robustness of wing/store system to flutter critical uncertainties. NOTE: (10/2009) An updated copy of this ETD was added after there were patron reports of problems with the file. / Ph. D.

Cette thèse a pour objectif la modélisation et la commande d'un robot parallèle actionné pneumatiquement destiné à des applications de prise et dépose d'objets. Les actionneurs pneumatiques sont des actionneurs à bas coût et ayant des rapports poids/puissance plus importants que les actionneurs électriques. Ceci a pour avantage de réduire le coût de revient du robot en augmentant sa capacité de charge. Cependant, du fait des fortes non linéarités qui les caractérisent (compressibilité de l'air, caractéristique de la valve, frottement, hystérésis ...), le principal obstacle à leur utilisation en robotique est leur commande de façon précise et robuste. C'est pour cela que plusieurs stratégies de commande ont été proposées et implémentées expérimentalement sur un banc d'essai utilisant trois types d'actionneurs pneumatiques: deux vérins et des muscles artificiels travaillant en mode antagoniste. Ces stratégies sont des schémas en cascade qui –après une linéarisant exacte obtenue sur la base du système non linéaire- combinent un contrôleur externe de position et une boucle interne de force (équivalente à la différence de pression) dans le cas des vérins pneumatiques. Pour les muscles artificiels, le même principe est utilisé sauf que la boucle interne de force est remplacée par une boucle qui régule le couple en contrôlant les pressions de chacun des deux muscles. Un contrôleur prédictif généralisé (GPC) est synthétisé pour la boucle de position permettant ainsi de réduire sensiblement les temps de réponse. Pour la boucle interne de pression, un contrôleur robuste multi-objectif combinant des performances H infinie avec des contraintes de placement de pôle a été synthétisé. L'utilisation d'inégalités matricielles affines (LMI) a permis de combiner les objectifs du contrôleur de façon très intuitive. Le choix de ce contrôleur robuste est motivé par la nécessité de rejeter les fortes variations de charge qui caractérisent les applications de prise-et-dépose d'objets. Deux autres stratégies pour la commande prédictive en effort ont été synthétisées sur les vérins et les muscles et ont donné des résultats très encourageants. Les résultats expérimentaux obtenus ont montré l'apport de ces lois de commande en termes de performances (réduction des temps de réponse, erreurs de suivi faibles) et de robustesse (bon rejet des perturbations). Une étude comparative des trois actionneurs testés a conduit au choix du vérin à double effet standard car offrant le meilleur compromis entre performances, robustesse et coût de l'actionneur. En se basant sur ce choix, un nouveau prototype de robot parallèle à deux degrés de liberté utilisant les vérins standards a été conçu, modélisé et commandé en utilisant les différentes stratégies en cascade proposées. L'implémentation expérimentale des algorithmes de commande a conduit à des résultats encourageants en termes de qualité de suivi et de rejet de perturbations. / The thesis objective is the control of a parallel robot driven with pneumatic actuators for pick-and-place applications. The advantage of using pneumatic actuators rather than electrical ones is that they are cheaper and have a bigger power-to-weight ratio which can increase the payload abilities of the robot. However, due to their strong nonlinearities such as air compressibility, valve characteristic, friction, and hysteresis, they are still difficult to control precisely and in a robust way.That is why the main contribution of the thesis is in the control area where different control schemes have been proposed and experimentally implemented on a test bench that involves three types of pneumatic actuators: two cylinders and agonist/antagonist artificial muscles. After the modeling and identification of the nonlinear models, different strategies have been developed: for cylinders, a cascade scheme which uses an outer position control loop and an inner force (or pressure difference) loop is used. For muscles, the inner force loop is replaced by a torque loop controlled by acting on the pressures in each muscle. For position, a Generalized Predictive Controller (GPC) is synthesized reducing sensibly the time responses. For the inner pressure loop, an LMI based multi objective controller is synthesized combining H infinity performances and pole placement constraints. The choice of a robust controller is motivated by the necessity of rejecting load variation disturban ces that characterize pick-and-place applications. On the other hand, two predictive control strategies with feedback linearization were implemented showing very encouraging results.The different experimental results have shown the interest of such strategies in terms of performances (time response reduction, good dynamic tracking) and robustness (disturbance rejection). The comparison of the three tested actuators led to the choice of the standard double acting cylinder because it offers the best compromise in terms of performances and cost. This cylinder was then used to design a planar parallel robot and the implementation of the proposed cascade strategies. The experimental tests showed encouraging results in terms of disturbance rejection and ability of tracking dynamic references and performing pick-and-place cycles.

In fin actuation systems, the performance of classical linear control systems is not satisfactory due to uncertainty of the system parameters and disturbances of the working medium. For this reason, sliding mode, H2 or H&infin / robust controllers are widely used in literature for such systems. However, use of such controllers results in very conservative system responses. Based on this fact, in this thesis, development of a more effective robust controller is aimed via integration of the optimum properties of the existent pure H2 and H&infin / type robust controllers. To achieve this, during the controller synthesizing procedure, some of the optimization parameters are weighted according to H2 norm minimization, and parameter uncertainties and other variables are weighted according to H&infin / theorem. First, the system set up to be controlled is physically constructed and performed system identification processes. Then, two different types of robust controllers H2 and H&infin / controllers are designed and tested over both the real system and simulation. Finally an H2/H&infin / mixed type controller synthesized and the results are compared with the outputs of the robust controllers of the previous step.

New technological advances and the requirements to increasingly abide by new safety laws in engineering design projects highly affects industrial products in areas such as automotive, aerospace and railway industries. The necessity arises to design reduced-cost hi-tech products with minimal complexity, optimal performance, effective parameter robustness properties, and high reliability with fault tolerance. In this context the control system design plays an important role and the impact is crucial relative to the level of cost efficiency of a product. Measurement of required information for the operation of the design control system in any product is a vital issue, and in such cases a number of sensors can be available to select from in order to achieve the desired system properties. However, for a complex engineering system a manual procedure to select the best sensor set subject to the desired system properties can be very complicated, time consuming or even impossible to achieve. This is more evident in the case of large number of sensors and the requirement to comply with optimum performance. The thesis describes a comprehensive study of sensor selection for control and fault tolerance with the particular application of an ElectroMagnetic Levitation system (being an unstable, nonlinear, safety-critical system with non-trivial control performance requirements). The particular aim of the presented work is to identify effective sensor selection frameworks subject to given system properties for controlling (with a level of fault tolerance) the MagLev suspension system. A particular objective of the work is to identify the minimum possible sensors that can be used to cover multiple sensor faults, while maintaining optimum performance with the remaining sensors. The tools employed combine modern control strategies and multiobjective constraint optimisation (for tuning purposes) methods. An important part of the work is the design and construction of a 25kg MagLev suspension to be used for experimental verification of the proposed sensor selection frameworks.

In the thesis, two different model predictive control (MPC) strategies are investigated for linear systems with uncertainty in the presence of constraints: namely robust MPC and stochastic MPC. Firstly, a Youla Parameter is integrated into an efficient robust MPC algorithm. It is demonstrated that even in the constrained cases, the use of the Youla Parameter can desensitize the costs to the effect of uncertainty while not affecting the nominal performance, and hence it strengthens the robustness of the MPC strategy. Since the controller u = K x + c can offer many advantages and is used across the thesis, the work provides two solutions to the problem when the unconstrained nominal LQ-optimal feedback K cannot stabilise the whole class of system models. The work develops two stochastic tube approaches to account for probabilistic constraints. By using a semi closed-loop paradigm, the nominal and the error dynamics are analyzed separately, and this makes it possible to compute the tube scalings offline. First, ellipsoidal tubes are considered. The evolution for the tube scalings is simplified to be affine and using Markov Chain model, the probabilistic tube scalings can be calculated to tighten the constraints on the nominal. The online algorithm can be formulated into a quadratic programming (QP) problem and the MPC strategy is closed-loop stable. Following that, a direct way to compute the tube scalings is studied. It makes use of the information on the distribution of the uncertainty explicitly. The tubes do not take a particular shape but are defined implicitly by tightened constraints. This stochastic MPC strategy leads to a non-conservative performance in the sense that the probability of constraint violation can be as large as is allowed. It also ensures the recursive feasibility and closed-loop stability, and is extended to the output feedback case.

In nature, through millions of years of evolution, fish and cetaceans have developed fast efficient and highly manoeuvrable methods of marine propulsion. A recent explosion in demand for sub sea robotics, for conducting tasks such as sub sea exploration and survey has left developers desiring to capture some of the novel mechanisms evolved by fish and cetaceans to increase the efficiency of speed and manoeuvrability of sub sea robots. Research has revealed that interactions with vortices and other unsteady fluid effects play a significant role in the efficiency of fish and cetaceans. However attempts to duplicate this with robotic fish have been limited by the difficulty of predicting or sensing such uncertain fluid effects. This study aims to develop a gait generation method for a robotic fish with a degree of passivity which could allow the body to dynamically interact with and potentially synchronise with vortices within the flow without the need to actually sense them. In this study this is achieved through the development of a novel energy based gait generation tactic, where the gait of the robotic fish is determined through regulation of the state energy rather than absolute state position. Rather than treating fluid interactions as undesirable disturbances and `fighting' them to maintain a rigid geometric defined gait, energy based control allows the disturbances to the system generated by vortices in the surrounding flow to contribute to the energy of the system and hence the dynamic motion. Three different energy controllers are presented within this thesis, a deadbeat energy controller equivalent to an analytically optimised model predictive controller, a $H_\infty$ disturbance rejecting controller with a novel gradient decent optimisation and finally a error feedback controller with a novel alternative error metric. The controllers were tested on a robotic fish simulation platform developed within this project. The simulation platform consisted of the solution of a series of ordinary differential equations for solid body dynamics coupled with a finite element incompressible fluid dynamic simulation of the surrounding flow. results demonstrated the effectiveness of the energy based control approach and illustrate the importance of choice of controller in performance.

Cette thèse porte sur les convertisseurs des liaisons à courant continu (HVDC- High Voltage Direct Current). Une nouvelle méthodologie de synthèse des régulateurs des convertisseurs basée sur un modèle de commande a été développée. Ce dernier prend en considération non seulement les deux convertisseurs de la liaison HVDC mais aussi l'ensemble des principaux éléments impactant la stabilité transitoire du système électrique dans lequel la liaison est insérée. Une commande robuste coordonnée est proposée pour, à la fois, répondre au cahier des charges de la liaison et améliorer la stabilité de la zone AC voisine à la liaison. La coordination de la synthèse de régulateurs pour les convertisseurs se fait à deux niveaux : le premier concerne les deux stations de conversion d'une même liaison HVDC et un second consistant en la coordination de plusieurs liaisons HVDC. De plus, seules les mesures disponibles localement (i.e., au niveau des stations de conversion) sont utilisées. Ce nouveau cadre de commande est une alternative à la commande vectorielle classique. L'approche a été validée à la fois sur des benchmarks académiques et en grande taille sur des cas concrets de renforcement du réseau de transport européen. / This thesis focuses on the control of converters of high voltage direct current (HVDC) links. A new methodology of synthesis of the controllers of the HVDC converters based on a control model has been developed. The latter takes into consideration not only the two converters of HVDC link but all the main dynamics affecting the transient stability of the power system in which the link is inserted. In order to improve the stability of the AC zone neighboring the HVDC link, in addition to the local objectives like power and voltage control, a coordinated robust control is proposed. The coordination of the synthesis controllers for converters is done at two levels: the first one is the coordination of the two stations of an HVDC link the second is consisting on the coordination of several HVDC links. In addition, only measures available locally (i.e., at the converter stations) are used. This new control frame is an alternative to the conventional vector control. The approach was validated on both academic benchmark and a large-scale dynamic model of the whole European power system.

Cette thèse s’adresse à la problématique de contrôle/commande et d'observation des exosquelettes du membre supérieur pour l’assistance à la mobilité des personnes qui souffrent d'un déficit moteur, caractérisé par une perte totale ou partielle des capacités motrices. Le robot utilisé pour les validations est conçu par RB3D dans le but des travaux de recherches sur les lois de commandes pour la rééducation du membre supérieur au sien du Laboratoire LISSI (Laboratoire Images, Signaux et Systèmes Intelligents) de l’UPEC, appelé ULEL (Upper Limb Exoskeleton of LISSI).Deux approches de commande d'exosquelettes pour la rééducation fonctionnelle du membre supérieur ont été proposées. La première commande est conçue sur la base d’un estimateur en-ligne des paramètres dynamiques. Cette méthode d'adaptation permet d'améliorer les performances de contrôle de ce système, et de compenser les erreurs paramétriques dues au couplage de l'exosquelette avec le membre humain.La deuxième contribution consiste en une stratégie de commande robuste basée sur les modes glissants. Cette stratégie non-linéaire, garantie la convergence des erreurs de poursuite vers zéro en temps fini lorsque le régime de glissement est atteint. Ce type de commande est connu par sa robustesse vis-à-vis les variations paramétriques et les perturbations externes. L'efficacité de la méthode proposée est démontrée expérimentalement pour le mode de rééducation passif.Dans la dernière partie de la thèse, un observateur en mode glissant d'ordre supérieur est proposé pour estimer les couples d'interactions homme-exosquelette. L'observateur proposé est capable d'estimer les efforts au niveau de l'interface d'interaction entre l'exosquelette et le membre humain, en utilisant les mesures de position et l'entrée de commande. Les résultats obtenus montrent l’efficacité des solutions proposées sur l’exosquelette ULEL. / This thesis addresses the problem of control of an upper limb exoskeleton for mobility assistance of people who suffer from a motor deficit, characterized by a total or partial loss of motor skills. The robot used is designed by RB3D for the purpose of research work on the control laws for the rehabilitation of the upper limb at LISSI Laboratory (Laboratory Images, Signals and Intelligent Systems) of the UPEC university; this exoskeleton is called ULEL (Upper Limb Exoskeleton of LISSI).Two approaches to control exoskeletons for functional rehabilitation of the upper limb have been proposed. The first control is based on an online estimator of dynamic parameters. This adaptation method makes it possible to improve the control performance of this system, and to compensate for parametric errors due to coupling the exoskeleton with the human limb.The second contribution consists of a robust control strategy based on sliding modes. This nonlinear strategy guarantees the convergence of tracking errors to zero in finite time when the sliding mode is reached. This type of control is known by its robustness with respect to parametric variations and external disturbances. The effectiveness of the proposed method is experimentally demonstrated for the passive rehabilitation mode.Finally, in the last part of this thesis, a higher order sliding mode observer is proposed to estimate interactions torques of the human-exoskeleton system. The proposed observer is able to estimate the forces at the interaction interface between the exoskeleton and the human limb, using the position measurements and the control input. The obtained results show the effectiveness of the proposed solutions using the exoskeleton ULEL.

À l'aube de la quatrième révolution industrielle, la comanipulation robotique est une technologie clé tant elle allie la dextérité de l'opérateur humain à la puissance de la machine. Ce partage de tache entre humain et la machine, en sus dans un environnement incertain et inconnu à l'avance, apporte un lot de difficultés intrinsèques à la nature de cette interaction. Cette problématique a été intensivement étudiée durant les vingt dernières années, par diverses équipes de recherches, le plus souvent sur des dispositifs à un seul degré de liberté et avec des hypothèses fortes sur la nature du contrôleur. Dans la présente thèse, nous traitons la problématique de la comanipulation robotique à travers la commande Hoo structurée, cadre de travail particulièrement adapté aux systèmes multivariables et pouvant être étendu à une certaine classe de systèmes non linéaires – les robots manipulateurs en font partie – à travers une modélisation linéaire à paramètres variants (LPV). Les exigences de performance et de stabilité propres aux systèmes de comanipulation sont exprimées en termes de contraintes Hoo et de conditions de secteurs à respecter. Les objectifs de commande ainsi formalisés, sont résolus par optimisation non lisse afin de tirer profit des structures particulières des contrôleurs de robots de comanipulation. La validation de la méthodologie est réalisée par des simulations intensives et des expérimentations sur des dispositifs réels. / At the dawn of the fourth industrial revolution, robotic comanipulation is a key technology as it combines the dexterity of the human operator with the power of the machine. This task sharing between human and machine, in an uncertain and previously unknown environment, brings a lot of intrinsic difficulties to the nature of this interaction. This problem has been intensively studied over the last two decades by various research teams, mostly on devices with a single degree of freedom and with strong hypotheses about the controller structure. In this thesis, we deal with the problem of robotic comanipulation through the scope of the structured Hoo control, a framework particularly adapted to multivariable systems and which can be extended to a certain class of non-linear systems – manipulating robots are part of it – through linear parameter varying (LPV) models. The performance and stability requirements specific to comanipulation systems are expressed in terms of Hoo constraints and sector bounds. The control objectives thus formalised are solved by non-smooth optimization in order to take advantage of the particular structures of the comanipulation robot controllers. The validity of the methodology is carried out by intensive simulations and experiments on real devices.

Em metalurgia, a busca pela qualidade, baixo custo e alta produtividade têm feito empresas e institutos de pesquisa trabalharem juntos, procurando novas tecnologias que supram as necessidades do mercado. Dentre essas novas tecnologias, se destaca o processo de lingotamento contínuo de tiras de aço, utilizando o conceito de twin roll, cuja proposição inicial foi sugerida no século XIX por Henry Bessemer. Este trabalho apresenta a modelagem, análise e controle de um sistema de bobinamento de tiras de aço produzidas através de lingotamento contínuo do tipo twin roll , em uma planta localizada no Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas de São Paulo. As características do processo foram primeiramente apresentadas. A modelagem matemática do sistema de bobinamento foi realizada, levando-se em consideração os componentes envolvidos no sistema. As variações paramétricas foram então evidenciadas. O sistema de controle foi primeiramente implementado utilizando-se um controlador do tipo PID, pelo fato desse tipo de controle ser altamente difundido industrialmente. Para maior precisão do sistema de controle, propôs-se a introdução de um sensor ultrasônico para medição das variações do raio de bobinamento. Por último realizou-se o projeto de um compensador robusto utilizando a metodologia LQG/LTR. Para a realização das simulações utilizou-se o programa Matlab/simulink. / In metallurgy, the quest for quality, low cost, and high productivity have resulted in companies and research institutes working together to find new technologies to satisfy the customer demand. Among these new technologies is the direct steel strip casting, using the twin roll concept suggested in the 19th century by Henry Bessemer. This work presents the modelling, analysis and control of a steel strip coiling system using twin roll direct casting, in a plant installed at the Technological Research Institute of Sao Paulo. The characteristics of the process are first introduced. The mathematic modelling of the coiling system used, take into account the system components. The parametric changes were adressed. The control system was first implemented using a PID controller as this kind of control is highly used in the industry. An ultrasonic sensor was introduced in the system to improve the control precision by coiling radius measurement. Last a robust compensator using the LQG/LTR method was designed. The simulations were done using Matlab/Simulink software.