Lyapunov based nonlinear control of electrical and mechanical systems

This Ph.D. dissertation describes the design and implementation of various control strategies centered around the following applications: (i) an improved indirect field oriented controller for the induction motor, (ii) partial state feedback control of an induction motor with saturation effects, (iii) tracking control of an underactuated surface vessel, and (iv) an attitude tracking controller for an underactuated spacecraft. The theory found in each of these sections is demonstrated through simulation or experimental results. An introduction to each of these four primary chapters can be found in chapter one.; In the second chapter, the previously published tracking control of [16] 1 is presented in the indirect field oriented control (IFOC) notation to achieve exponential rotor velocity/rotor flux tracking. Specifically, it is illustrated how the proposed IFOC controller can be rewritten in the manner of [16] to allow for a direct Lyapunov stability proof. Experimental results (implemented with the IFOC algorithm) are provided to corroborate the efficacy of the algorithm.; In the third chapter, a singularity-free, rotor position tracking controller is presented for the full order, nonlinear dynamic model of the induction motor that includes the effects of magnetic saturation. Specifically, by utilizing the π-equivalent saturation model, an observer/controller strategy is designed that achieves semi-global exponential rotor position tracking and only requires stator current, rotor velocity, and rotor position measurements. Simulation and experimental results are included to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.; In the fourth chapter, a continuous, time-varying tracking controller is designed that globally exponentially forces the position/orientation tracking error of an under-actuated surface vessel to a neighborhood about zero that can be made arbitrarily small (i.e., global uniformly ultimately boundedness (GUUB)). The result is facilitated by fusing a filtered tracking error transformation with the dynamic oscillator design presented in [20]. The proposed tracking controller yields a GUUB result for the regulation problem also.; In the final chapter, a nonlinear controller is designed for the kinematic model of an underactuated rigid spacecraft that ensures uniform, ultimately bounded (UUB) tracking provided the initial errors are selected sufficiently small. The result is achieved via a judicious formulation of the spacecraft kinematics and the novel design of a Lyapunov-based controller. It is also demonstrated how standard backstepping control techniques can be fused with the kinematic controller to solve the full-order regulation problem for an axisymmetric spacecraft. Simulation results are included to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.; 1It is to be noted that the controller presented in [16] was originally designed to obtain exponential rotor position /rotor flux tracking for the full-order induction motor model (i.e., stator current dynamics are included).