Model-Free Plant Tuning

• Given a static plant described by a differentiable input-output function, which is completely unknown, but whose Jacobian takes values in a known polytope in the matrix space, this paper considers the problem of tuning (i.e., driving to a desired value) the output, by suitably choosing the input. It is shown that, if the polytope is robustly non-singular (or has full rank, in the non-square case), then a suitable tuning scheme drives the output to the desired point. The proof exploits a Lyapunov-like function and applies a well known game-theoretic result, concerning the existence of a saddle point for a minmax zero-sum game. When the plant output is represented in an implicit form, it is shown that the same result can be obtained, resorting to a different Lyapunov-like function. The case in which proper input or output constraints must be enforced during the transient is considered as well. Some application examples are proposed to show the effectiveness of the approach.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik -- Reglerteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering -- Control Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Games

Generators

Jacobian matrices

Robustness

Steady-state

Transient analysis

Tuning

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)