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Markus Schöberl

Publications and source records attributed to Markus Schöberl.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2022

Discrete-time Flatness and Linearization along Trajectories

The paper studies the relation between a nonlinear time-varying flat discrete-time system and the corresponding linear time-varying systems which are obtained by a linearization along trajectories. It is motivated by the continuous-time case, where it is well-known that the linearization of flat systems along trajectories results in linear time-varying systems which are again flat. Since flatness implies controllability, this constitutes an important verifiable necessary condition for flatness. In the present contribution, it is shown that this is also true in the discrete-time case: We prove that the linearized system is again flat, and that a possible flat output is given by the linearization of a flat output of the nonlinear system. Analogously, the map that describes the parameterization of the system variables of the linear system by this flat output coincides with the linearization of the corresponding map of the nonlinear system. The results are illustrated by two examples.

math.OC↗
arXiv2022

A Flat System Possessing no (x,u)-Flat Output

In general, flat outputs of a nonlinear system may depend on the system's state and input as well as on an arbitrary number of time derivatives of the latter. If a flat output which also depends on time derivatives of the input is known, one may pose the question whether there also exists a flat output which is independent of these time derivatives, i.e., an (x,u)-flat output. Until now, the question whether every flat system also possesses an (x,u)-flat output has been open. In this contribution, this conjecture is disproved by means of a counterexample. We present a two-input system which is differentially flat with a flat output depending on the state, the input and first-order time derivatives of the input, but which does not possess any (x,u)-flat output. The proof relies on the fact that every (x,u)-flat two-input system can be exactly linearized after an at most dim(x)-fold prolongation of one of its (new) inputs after a suitable input transformation has been applied.

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arXiv2022

Discrete-time Flatness-based Controller Design using an Implicit Euler-discretization

In this contribution, we present a constructive method to derive flat sampled-data models for continuous-time flat systems through an implicit Euler-discretization. We show how the sampled-data model can be used subsequently for a flatness-based controller design, and illustrate our results with the well-known planar VTOL aircraft example.

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arXiv2022

Flatness Analysis for the Sampled-data Model of a Single Mast Stacker Crane

We show that the Euler-discretization of the nonlinear continuous-time model of a single mast stacker crane is flat. The construction of the flat output is based on a transformation of a subsystem into the linear time-variant discrete-time controller canonical form. Based on the derived flat output, which is also a function of backward-shifts of the system variables, we discuss the planning of trajectories to achieve a transition between two rest positions and compute the corresponding discrete-time feedforward control.

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arXiv2021

Discrete-time Flatness-based Control of a Gantry Crane

This article addresses the design of a discrete-time flatness-based tracking control for a gantry crane and demonstrates the practical applicability of the approach by measurement results. The required sampled-data model is derived by an Euler-discretization with a prior state transformation in such a way that the flatness of the continuous-time system is preserved. Like in the continuous-time case, the flatness-based controller design is performed in two steps. First, the sampled-data system is exactly linearized by a discrete-time quasi-static state feedback. Subsequently, a further feedback enforces a stable linear tracking error dynamics. To underline its practical relevance, the performance of the novel discrete-time tracking control is compared to the classical continuous-time approach by measurement results from a laboratory setup. In particular, it turns out that the discrete-time controller is significantly more robust with respect to large sampling times. Moreover, it is shown how the discrete-time approach facilitates the design of optimal reference trajectories, and further measurement results are presented.

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arXiv2021

Energy-based Control and Observer Design for higher-order infinite-dimensional Port-Hamiltonian Systems

In this paper, we present a control-design method based on the energy-Casimir method for infinite-dimensional, boundary-actuated port-Hamiltonian systems with two-dimensional spatial domain and second-order Hamiltonian. The resulting control law depends on distributed system states that cannot be measured, and therefore, we additionally design an infinite-dimensional observer by exploiting the port-Hamiltonian system representation. A Kirchhoff-Love plate serves as an example in order to demonstrate the proposed approaches.

math.OC↗
arXiv2021

Differential-Geometric Decomposition of Flat Nonlinear Discrete-Time Systems

We prove that every flat nonlinear discrete-time system can be decomposed by coordinate transformations into a smaller-dimensional subsystem and an endogenous dynamic feedback. For flat continuous-time systems, no comparable result is available. The advantage of such a decomposition is that the complete system is flat if and only if the subsystem is flat. Thus, by repeating the decomposition at most $n-1$ times, where $n$ is the dimension of the state space, the flatness of a discrete-time system can be checked in an algorithmic way. If the system is flat, then the algorithm yields a flat output which only depends on the state variables. Hence, every flat discrete-time system has a flat output which does not depend on the inputs and their forward-shifts. Again, no comparable result for flat continuous-time systems is available. The algorithm requires in each decomposition step the construction of state- and input transformations, which are obtained by straightening out certain vector fields or distributions with the flow-box theorem or the Frobenius theorem. Thus, from a computational point of view, only the calculation of flows and the solution of algebraic equations is needed. We illustrate our results by two examples.

math.OC↗
arXiv2021

A Trajectory-Based Approach to Discrete-Time Flatness

For discrete-time systems, flatness is usually defined by replacing the time-derivatives of the well-known continuous-time definition by forward-shifts. With this definition, the class of flat systems corresponds exactly to the class of systems which can be linearized by a discrete-time endogenous dynamic feedback as it is proposed in the literature. Recently, verifiable necessary and sufficient differential-geometric conditions for this property have been derived. In the present contribution, we make an attempt to take into account also backward-shifts. This extended approach is motivated by the one-to-one correspondence of solutions of flat systems to solutions of a trivial system as it is known from the continuous-time case. If we transfer this idea to the discrete-time case, this leads to an approach which also allows backward-shifts. To distinguish the classical definition with forward-shifts and the approach of the present paper, we refer to the former as forward-flatness. We show that flat systems (in the extended sense with backward-shifts) still share many beneficial properties of forward-flat systems. In particular, they still are reachable/controllable, allow a straightforward planning of trajectories and can be linearized by a certain subclass of dynamic feedbacks.

math.DG↗
arXiv2020

On a Flat Triangular Form Based on the Extended Chained Form

In this paper, we present a structurally flat triangular form which is based on the extended chained form. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for an affine input system with two inputs to be static feedback equivalent to the proposed triangular form, and thus a sufficient condition for an affine input system to be flat.

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arXiv2020

A Structurally Flat Triangular Form Based on the Extended Chained Form

In this paper, we present a structurally flat triangular form which is based on the extended chained form. We provide a complete geometric characterization of the proposed triangular form in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions for an affine input system with two inputs to be static feedback equivalent to this triangular form. This yields a sufficient condition for an affine input system to be flat.

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arXiv2020

Linearized Controllability Analysis of Semilinear Partial Differential Equations

It is well-known that the controllability of finite-dimensional nonlinear systems can be established by showing the controllability of the linearized system. However, this classical result does not generalize to infinite-dimensional nonlinear systems. In this paper, we restrict ourselves to semilinear infinite-dimensional systems, and show that the exact controllability of the linearized system implies exact controllability of the nonlinear system. The restrictions concerning the nonlinear operator are similar to those that can be found in the literature about the linearized stability analysis of semilinear systems.

math.OC↗
arXiv2020

Stability Analysis of the Observer Error of an In-Domain Actuated Vibrating String

In this paper, the behaviour of the observer error of an in-domain actuated vibrating string, where the observer system has been designed based on energy considerations exploiting a port-Hamiltonian system representation for infinite-dimensional systems, is analysed. Thus, the observer-error dynamics are reformulated as an abstract Cauchy problem, which enables to draw conclusions regarding the well-posedness of the observer-error system. Furthermore, we show that the observer error is asymptotically stable by applying LaSalle's invariance principle for infinite-dimensional systems.

math.OC↗
arXiv2020

A Normal Form for Two-Input Flat Nonlinear Discrete-Time Systems

We show that every flat nonlinear discrete-time system with two inputs can be transformed into a structurally flat normal form by state- and input transformations. This normal form has a triangular structure and allows to read off the flat output, as well as a systematic construction of the parameterization of all system variables by the flat output and its forward-shifts. For flat continuous-time systems no comparable normal form exist.

math.DS↗
arXiv2020

Embedded-physics machine learning for coarse-graining and collective variable discovery without data

We present a novel learning framework that consistently embeds underlying physics while bypassing a significant drawback of most modern, data-driven coarse-grained approaches in the context of molecular dynamics (MD), i.e., the availability of big data. The generation of a sufficiently large training dataset poses a computationally demanding task, while complete coverage of the atomistic configuration space is not guaranteed. As a result, the explorative capabilities of data-driven coarse-grained models are limited and may yield biased "predictive" tools. We propose a novel objective based on reverse Kullback-Leibler divergence that fully incorporates the available physics in the form of the atomistic force field. Rather than separating model learning from the data-generation procedure - the latter relies on simulating atomistic motions governed by force fields - we query the atomistic force field at sample configurations proposed by the predictive coarse-grained model. Thus, learning relies on the evaluation of the force field but does not require any MD simulation. The resulting generative coarse-grained model serves as an efficient surrogate model for predicting atomistic configurations and estimating relevant observables. Beyond obtaining a predictive coarse-grained model, we demonstrate that in the discovered lower-dimensional representation, the collective variables (CVs) are related to physicochemical properties, which are essential for gaining understanding of unexplored complex systems. We demonstrate the algorithmic advances in terms of predictive ability and the physical meaning of the revealed CVs for a bimodal potential energy function and the alanine dipeptide.

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arXiv2020

Energy-Based In-Domain Control and Observer Design for Infinite-Dimensional Port-Hamiltonian Systems

In this paper, we consider infinite-dimensional port-Hamiltonian systems with in-domain actuation by means of an approach based on Stokes-Dirac structures as well as in a framework that exploits an underlying jet-bundle structure. In both frameworks, a dynamic controller based on the energy-Casimir method is derived in order to stabilise certain equilibrias. Moreover, we propose distributed-parameter observers deduced by exploiting damping injection for the observer error. Finally, we compare the approaches by means of an in-domain actuated vibrating string and show the equivalence of the control schemes derived in both frameworks.

math.OC↗
arXiv2019

On the Linearization of Flat Two-Input Systems by Prolongations and Applications to Control Design

In this paper we consider $(x,u)$-flat nonlinear control systems with two inputs, and show that every such system can be rendered static feedback linearizable by prolongations of a suitably chosen control. This result is not only of theoretical interest, but has also important implications on the design of flatness based tracking controls. We show that a tracking control based on quasi-static state feedback can always be designed in such a way that only measurements of a (classical) state of the system, and not measurements of a generalized Brunovsky state, as reported in the literature, are required.

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