Engineering topics

Safonov, M. G.

Publications and source records attributed to Safonov, M. G..

11 records

NASA NTRS1993

A fixed H-infinity controller for a supermaneuverable fighter performing the Herbst maneuver

This paper presents an H-infinity flight control system design case study for a supermaneuverable fighter flying the Herbst maneuver. The Herbst maneuver presents an especially challenging flight control problem because of its large ranges of airspeed, angle of attack and angular rates. A fixed H-infinity controller has been developed via the mixed-sensitivity problem formulation for 20 linearized models representing the maneuver. Both linear and nonlinear full model evaluations indicate that this single H-infinity controller together with a fixed LQR inner loop feedback have achieved 'robust stability' and 'robust performance' for the entire maneuver without gain scheduling.

Chiang, R. Y.↗

NASA NTRS1992

H-infinity synthesis using a bilinear pole shifting transform

An H-inifinity control law design is presented for a benchmark problem consisting of an undamped pair of spring-coupled masses with a sensor and actuator that are not collocated. This simple mechanical system captures many of the salient features of more complex aircraft and space structure vibration control problems. The H-infinity problem formulation enables the issue of stability robustness in the face of large mass and spring constant variation to be directly addressed. Constraints on closed-loop dominant pole locations and settling time are accommodated via a simple s-plane bilinear transform. The transform parameter can give direct control of closed-loop disturbance settling time and controller open-loop pole-zero locations. A four-state H-infinity minimum phase controller was found to meet the given specifications of each design. Detailed analysis on the tradeoffs of sensor noise vs control energy are also presented.

Chiang, R. Y.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Real Km-synthesis via generalized Popov multipliers

The authors refine their H-infinity control designs presented at the 1990 and 1991 American Control Conference by introducing a new real Km-synthesis technique involving the use of generalized Popov multipliers. This multiplier technique substantially reduces, and in some cases may even eliminate altogether, the conservativeness associated with traditional Km-synthesis solutions in which all uncertainties are treated as complex, even when they arise from real parameters such as the masses and spring constants in the benchmark problem. The design results demonstrate how this approach permits a very precise analysis of the intrinsic tradeoffs between robustness, performance, and control energy requirements. Also included is an open-loop H-infinity prefilter design that makes it possible to address the command response shaping issue. The design concept has been applied to the benchmark problem no. 4 and successfully removes the initial undesired transient and cuts down the percent overshoot.

Chiang, R. Y.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Robust computer-aided synthesis and optimization of linear multivariable control systems with varying plant dynamics via AUTOCON

AUTOCON is an automated computer-aided design tool for the synthesis and optimization of linear multivariable control systems based upon user-defined control parameter optimization. Violations in stability and performance requirements are computed from constraints on Single Input/Single Output (SISO) open- and closed-loop transfer function frequency responses, and from constraints on the singular-value frequency responses of Multiple Input/Multiple Output (MIMO) transfer functions, for all critical plant variations. Optimum nonlinear programming algorithms are used in the search for local constrained solutions in which violations in stability and performance are caused either to vanish or be minimized for a proper selection of the control parameters. Classical control system stability and performance design can, in this way, be combined with modern multivariable robustness methods to offer general frequency response loop-shaping via a computer-aided design tool. Complete Nichols, Nyquist, Bode, singular-value Bode magnitude and transient response plots are produced, including user-defined boundary responses. AUTOCON is used to synthesize and optimize the lateral/directional flight control system for a typical high-performance aircraft.

Lefkowitz, C. P.↗

NASA NTRS1981

A multiloop generalization of the circle criterion for stability margin analysis

In order to provide a theoretical tool well suited for use in characterizing the stability margins (e.g., gain and phase margins) of multiloop feedback systems, multiloop input-output stability results generalizing the circle stability criterion are considered. Generalized conic sectors with 'centers' and 'radii' determined by linear dynamical operators are employed to enable an engineer to specify the stability margins which he desires as a frequency-dependent convex set of modeling errors (including nonlinearities, gain variations, and phase variations) which the system must be able to tolerate in each feedback loop without instability. The resulting stability criterion gives sufficient conditions for closed-loop stability in the presence of such frequency-dependent modeling errors, even when the modeling errors occur simultaneously in all loops.

Safonov, M. G.↗

NASA NTRS1979

A multiloop generalization of the circle criterion for stability margin analysis

In order to provide a theoretical tool suited for characterizing the stability margins of multiloop feedback systems, multiloop input-output stability results generalizing the circle stability criterion are considered. Generalized conic sectors with 'centers' and 'radii' determined by linear dynamical operators are employed to specify the stability margins as a frequency dependent convex set of modeling errors (including nonlinearities, gain variations and phase variations) which the system must be able to tolerate in each feedback loop without instability. The resulting stability criterion gives sufficient conditions for closed loop stability in the presence of frequency dependent modeling errors, even when the modeling errors occur simultaneously in all loops. The stability conditions yield an easily interpreted scalar measure of the amount by which a multiloop system exceeds, or falls short of, its stability margin specifications.

Safonov, M. G.↗

NASA NTRS1979

A multiloop generalization of the circle stability criterion

A frequency-domain stability criterion is presented, generalizing the well-known circle stability criterion to multiloop feedback systems having bounded nonlinearity, parameter variations, and/or frequency-dependent ignorance of component dynamics. Unlike previous generalizations, the theory is not restricted to weakly-coupled, diagonally dominant or nearly normal systems. Potential applications include the analysis of feedback system integrity and multiloop feedback system stability margins.

Safonov, M. G.↗

NASA NTRS1979

On stability theory

It is found that under mild assumptions, feedback system stability can be concluded if one can 'topologically separate' the infinite-dimensional function space containing the system's dynamical input-output relations into two regions, one region containing the dynamical input-output relation of the 'feedforward' element of the system and the other region containing the dynamical output-input relation of the 'feedback' element. Nonlinear system stability criteria of both the input-output type and the state-space (Liapunov) type are interpreted in this context. The abstract generality and conceptual simplicity afforded by the topological separation perspective clarifies some of the basic issues underlying stability theory and serves to suggest improvements in existing stability criteria. A generalization of Zames' (1966) conic-relation stability criterion is proved, laying the foundation for improved multivariable generalizations of the frequency-domain circle stability criterion for nonlinear systems.

Safonov, M. G.↗

NASA NTRS1978

Robustness and computational aspects of nonlinear stochastic estimators and regulators

Robustness properties of nonlinear extended Kalman filters with constant gains and modeling errors are presented. Sufficient conditions for the nondivergence of state estimates generated by such nonlinear estimators are given. In addition, the overall robustness and stability properties of closed-loop stochastic regulators, based upon the linear-quadratic Gaussian design methodology using linearized dynamics, are presented; the sufficient conditions for closed-loop stability have a 'separation-type' property.

Safonov, M. G.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Gain and phase margin for multiloop LQG regulators

Multiloop linear-quadratic state-feedback (LQSF) regulators are shown to be robust against a variety of large dynamical linear time-invariant and memoryless nonlinear time-varying variations in open-loop dynamics. The results are interpreted in terms of the classical concepts of gain and phase margin, thus strengthening the link between classical and modern feedback theory.

Safonov, M. G.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Robustness and computational aspects of nonlinear stochastic estimators and regulators

Robustness properties of nonlinear extended Kalman filters with constant gains and modeling errors are presented. Sufficient conditions for the nondivergence of state estimates generated by such nonlinear estimators are given. In addition, the overall robustness and stability properties of closed-loop stochastic regulators, based upon the Linear-Quadratic-Gaussian design methodology using linearized dynamics, are presented; the sufficient conditions for closed-loop stability have 'separation-type' property.

Safonov, M. G.↗