A New Scheme on Robust Observer-Based Control Design for Interconnected Systems With Application to an Industrial Utility Boiler

This paper presents a new design algorithm for the decentralized output feedback control problem of large-scale interconnected systems. Each subsystem is composed of a linear (possibly unstable) time-invariant part and an uncertain additive nonlinearity which is a discontinuous function of time and state of the overall system. The nonlinear function is assumed to be bounded by a quadratic inequality, and a decentralized estimated state feedback controller and a decentralized observer are designed for each subsystem, based on linear matrix inequalities. Sufficient conditions for the synthesis of feedback action are provided, under which the proposed controllers and observers can achieve robust stabilization of the overall large-scale system. An attractive feature of the proposed scheme is that it guarantees connective stability of the overall system and requires no intersubsystem communication. The controller design is evaluated on a natural circulation drum boiler, where the nonlinear model describes the key dynamical properties of the drum, the risers, the downcomers, and the turbine-generator unit. The linearized system has two poles at origin, one associated with water dynamics and the other with generator dynamics. Simulation results are presented that show the effectiveness of the proposed control against instabilities following sudden load variations. The control is also effective for steady-state operation.

I. Introduction

During the last few decades, many researchers in the field of large-scale interconnected systems are devoted to decentralized robust control strategies [1]–[7]. An important motivation for the design of decentralized schemes is that the interconnected systems can be decomposed into low-order subsystems. Therefore, the design procedure gets simplified and the overall computational effort can be shared by all of the subsystem controllers. Also, in diverse fields like power systems, robotics, and space structures, interconnected systems do not live in one piece during operation. In many cases, the subsystems are disconnected and again connected in an unpredictable way to perform programmed tasks [4]. Under such structural reconfigurations, what is required is a control strategy that can guarantee connective stability of the overall system [2], [4] or can achieve a desired robust performance in the presence of uncertain interconnections [3], [8].