Seminar "Improving the performance of output feedback tracking control in an augmented ADRC system".

Performance improvement of output-feedback tracking control in an augmented ADRC system with fixed-bandwidth LESO

Robust output feedback with active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) has proven to be a very effective control paradigm for highly uncertain disturbed systems. However, the main practical limitation of ADRC stems from the application of a high-gain observer, which can lead to significant amplification of high-frequency noise corrupting output measurements. We will show that this limitation can be reduced by augmenting a conventional ADRC system with an auxiliary online estimator of the dynamics of the closed-loop tracking error that contains key residual information, useful for improving tracking control performance in the augmented ADRC system. The proposed concept will be illustrated by selected results from numerical simulations and by experimental results obtained on an installation with an ultra-precise servomotor.

Methodology for designing VFO controls for mobile robots. A short tutorial.

During the lecture, we will discuss the design methodology of Vector Field Orientation (VFO) control and its application to a differentially driven mobile robot. The VFO method leads to simple, geometry-driven feedback controllers that are easy to tune and give a well-predictable behavior of the robot during a transient phase. We will examine VFO controllers for three classical control tasks: setpoint control, path following and trajectory tracking. In addition, we will discuss a cascade control structure and how VFO control laws can be used in this structure. Simulation results will illustrate the effectiveness of derived control systems. VFO controllers can be a useful tool for engineers and researchers working in the field of mobile robotics and automated guided vehicles.

Maciej Marcin Michalek received a PhD and a Doctor of Science (habilitation) in the field of automatic control and robotics from Poznan University of Technology (PUT), Poznan, Poland, in 2006 and 2015 respectively. He is currently Associate Professor at PUT's Institute of Automatic Control and Robotics. His research focuses on control modeling and design problems for non-holonomic systems, in particular for mobile robots, N-trailer structures and intelligent/automated vehicles. Mr. Michalek is a Senior Member of the IEEE; he served as President of the Polish Chapter of the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society during the periods 2020-2021 and 2022-2023. He was a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems (2011-2023) and the Journal of the Franklin Institute (2020-2022). He is currently Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions of Cybernetics and the IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.