Career: Nonlinear Control: New Problems for Robust and Adaptive Design

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9624386 Krstic The research objective of the proposal is to develop new control designs which exploit, rather than counteract, nonlinear features of engineering systems. The Principal Investigator's previous research includes solutions to several long-standing design problems in adaptive nonlinear control and a new monograph on control of uncertain nonlinear systems. These designs are gaining popularity in a number of application areas, and are included in commercially available control design software. This proposal addresses new problems of robust and adaptive control for systems with severe nonlinearities and highly uncertain models. (A) New designs will be developed which avoid cancellation of useful nonlinearities. This is a major theoretical and practical problem which the PI was recently able to solve for application to jet engine stabilization. A general solution to this problem is likely to have a technological impact in application areas such as automotive systems, flight control, electric motors, power systems, manufacturing, and many others. Designs without cancellation will contribute to solving robust nonlinear control problems of practical importance: limited control power, sensitivity to noise and unmodeled dynamics, and stabilization of bifurcated equilibria. (B) Design methods will be developed to solve the problem of "peak seeking"-regulation to peaks of uncertain nonlinear functions. Such problems occur in many inherently nonlinear applications where maximum efficiency is achieved at the peak but the uncertainty prevents the designer from choosing the set point a priori. (C) Existing methods of adaptive nonlinear control will be redesigned to allow nonparametric uncertainties and improve performances under unmodeled dynamics. The PI's recent finding that adaptive controllers can converge to destabilizing controllers (while guaranteeing global regulation) advances the fundamental geometric understanding of adaptive systems and will guide his future robust redesigns. The objectives of the proposal are motivated by application problems, and will provide a theoretical base for future collaborative projects with United Technologies, Ford Motor Company, and Rockwell International. The focus of the education plan is on developing a new graduate course Nonlinear Control Design based on the PI's recent book. An effort will be made to introduce nonlinear control results of engineering relevance into the graduate control curriculum. A particular emphasis will be put on making nonlinear control attractive to a broader spectrum of control students, especially those with interest in applications, so as to enhance appreciation of control among future industrial leaders. The undergraduate teaching plan is a part of a major innovative reform of the undergraduate curriculum at UMCP. The dynamics of the industrial environment are much faster than those of the academic environment, consequently, the plan calls for undergraduate control education which teaches a lasting set of skills with enduring value. Computer animation is proposed as an important tool for teaching undergraduate control. ***