CAREER: Utilizing Nonlinearity - Leverage to Global Synthesis of Inherently Nonlinear Systems

在这个项目中，我们提出了一个密集的计划，为各种固有的非线性系统开发新的控制器设计方法，并将研究结果应用于欠驱动机械系统、柔性连杆移动机器人和其他具有各种不确定性的实际系统的控制问题。所考虑的系统不具有现有控制方案的共同要求的可控线性化。因此，这些系统的大多数控制问题仍然是悬而未决的，确实给控制工程带来了新的挑战。在这个项目中，我们致力于开发理论上合理和实用的控制器设计方案，使我们能够解决用现有方法无法充分控制的固有非线性系统的全局镇定、自适应调节和输出反馈控制等难题。我们的主要方法依赖于添加由提出者和合作者开发的功率积分器技术，该技术充分利用系统的非线性来有效地控制固有非线性系统。最近基于该工具的研究工作为具有不可控线性化的系统的一些控制问题带来了新的解决方案，并表明该研究计划可以取得非常有前途的进展。这一职业发展计划的教育部分旨在开发和重塑课程，引入创新的教学技术，指导本科生和研究生，建立新的实验室，并创建研究型项目和基础实验。通过所有这些努力，我们相信该研究项目可以有效地整合到德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校的学术课程中。此外，在让学生接触尖端技术的同时，该教育计划还将有助于弥合理论研究和工程实践之间的差距，从而激发学生对控制工程的兴趣。

In this project, we propose an intensive program to develop new controller designmethodologies for a variety of inherently nonlinear systems, and to apply the findings tothe control problems of underactuated mechanical systems, mobile robots with flex link,and other practical systems with various uncertainties. The systems under consideration donot have a controllable linearization that is a common requirement of existing controlschemes. Therefore, most of the control problems for these systems are still open andindeed bring new challenges to the control engineering. In this project, we concentrate onthe development of both theoretically sound and practically useful controller designschemes, which enable us to solve the difficult problems of global stabilization, adaptiveregulation, and output feedback control, for inherently nonlinear systems that cannot beadequately controlled using the existing methods.Our primary approach relies on the adding a power integrator technique developed by theproposer and collaborators, which fully utilizes the nonlinearity of the systems toeffectively control the inherently nonlinear systems. The recent research work based onthis tool has led to new solutions to a number of control problems for systems withuncontrollable linearization, and suggests that very promising advances can be achieved bythis research program.The educational component of this CAREER development plan aims at developing and reshapingcourses, introducing innovative teaching techniques, mentoring undergraduate and graduatestudents, setting up new laboratories, and creating research-oriented projects andhands-on experiments. With all these efforts, we believe that the research program can beeffectively integrated into the academic curriculum of the University of Texas at SanAntonio. Moreover, while exposing the students to state-of-the-art techniques, theeducation plan will also help bridge the gap between theoretical research and engineeringpractice, and therefore stimulate students' interest in control engineering.