No Arabic abstract
Differentiation is an important task in control, observation and fault detection. Levants differentiator is unique, since it is able to estimate exactly and robustly the derivatives of a signal with a bounded high-order derivative. However, the convergence time, although finite, grows unboundedly with the norm of the initial differentiation error, making it uncertain when the estimated derivative is exact. In this paper we propose an extension of Levants differentiator so that the worst case convergence time can be arbitrarily assigned independently of the initial condition, i.e. the estimation converges in emph{Fixed-Time}. We propose also a family of continuous differentiators and provide a unified Lyapunov framework for analysis and design.
There is an increasing interest in designing differentiators, which converge exactly before a prespecified time regardless of the initial conditions, i.e., which are fixed-time convergent with a predefined Upper Bound of their Settling Time (UBST), due to their ability to solve estimation and control problems with time constraints. However, for the class of signals with a known bound of their $(n+1)$-th time derivative, the existing design methodologies are either only available for first-order differentiators, yielding a very conservative UBST, or result in gains that tend to infinity at the convergence time. Here, we introduce a new methodology based on time-varying gains to design arbitrary-order exact differentiators with a predefined UBST. This UBST is a priori set as one parameter of the algorithm. Our approach guarantees that the UBST can be set arbitrarily tight, and we also provide sufficient conditions to obtain exact convergence while maintaining bounded time-varying gains. Additionally, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions such that our approach yields error dynamics with a uniformly Lyapunov stable equilibrium. Our results show how time-varying gains offer a general and flexible methodology to design algorithms with a predefined UBST.
Constructing differentiation algorithms with a fixed-time convergence and a predefined Upper Bound on their Settling Time (textit{UBST}), i.e., predefined-time differentiators, is attracting attention for solving estimation and control problems under time constraints. However, existing methods are limited to signals having an $n$-th Lipschitz derivative. Here, we introduce a general methodology to design $n$-th order predefined-time differentiators for a broader class of signals: for signals, whose $(n+1)$-th derivative is bounded by a function with bounded logarithmic derivative, i.e., whose $(n+1)$-th derivative grows at most exponentially. Our approach is based on a class of time-varying gains known as Time-Base Generators (textit{TBG}). The only assumption to construct the differentiator is that the class of signals to be differentiated $n$-times have a $(n+1)$-th derivative bounded by a known function with a known bound for its $(n+1)$-th logarithmic derivative. We show how our methodology achieves an textit{UBST} equal to the predefined time, better transient responses with smaller error peaks than autonomous predefined-time differentiators, and a textit{TBG} gain that is bounded at the settling time instant.
Algorithms having uniform convergence with respect to their initial condition (i.e., with fixed-time stability) are receiving increasing attention for solving control and observer design problems under time constraints. However, we still lack a general methodology to design these algorithms for high-order perturbed systems when we additionally need to impose a user-defined upper-bound on their settling time, especially for systems with perturbations. Here, we fill this gap by introducing a methodology to redesign a class of asymptotically, finite- and fixed-time stable systems into non-autonomous fixed-time stable systems with a user-defined upper-bound on their settling time. Our methodology redesigns a system by adding time-varying gains. However, contrary to existing methods where the time-varying gains tend to infinity as the origin is reached, we provide sufficient conditions to maintain bounded gains. We illustrate our methodology by building fixed-time online differentiators with user-defined upper-bound on their settling time and bounded gains.
In power distribution systems, the growing penetration of renewable energy resources brings new challenges to maintaining voltage safety, which is further complicated by the limited model information of distribution systems. To address these challenges, we develop a model-free optimal voltage control algorithm based on projected primal-dual gradient dynamics and continuous-time zeroth-order method (extreme seeking control). This proposed algorithm i) operates purely based on voltage measurements and does not require any other model information, ii) can drive the voltage magnitudes back to the acceptable range, iii) satisfies the power capacity constraints all the time, iv) minimizes the total operating cost, and v) is implemented in a decentralized fashion where the privacy of controllable devices is preserved and plug-and-play operation is enabled. We prove that the proposed algorithm is semi-globally practically asymptotically stable and is structurally robust to measurement noises. Lastly, the performance of the proposed algorithm is further demonstrated via numerical simulations.
For optimal power flow problems with chance constraints, a particularly effective method is based on a fixed point iteration applied to a sequence of deterministic power flow problems. However, a priori, the convergence of such an approach is not necessarily guaranteed. This article analyses the convergence conditions for this fixed point approach, and reports numerical experiments including for large IEEE networks.