Robust control system design for an uncertain nonlinear system using minimax LQG design method

A systematic approach to design a nonlinear controller using minimax linear quadratic Gaussian regulator (LQG) control is proposed for a class of multi-input multi-output nonlinear uncertain systems. In this approach, a robust feedback linearization method and a notion of uncertain diffeomorphism are used to obtain an uncertain linearized model for the corresponding uncertain nonlinear system. A robust minimax LQG controller is then proposed for reference command tracking and stabilization of the nonlinear system in the presence of uncertain parameters. The uncertainties are assumed to satisfy a certain integral quadratic constraint condition. In this method, conventional feedback linearization is used to cancel nominal nonlinear terms and the uncertain nonlinear terms are linearized in a robust way. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a minimax LQG-based robust controller is designed for a nonlinear uncertain model of an air-breathing hypersonic flight vehicle (AHFV) with flexibility and input coupling. Here, the problem of constructing a guaranteed cost controller which minimizes a guaranteed cost bound has been considered and the tracking of velocity and altitude is achieved under inertial and aerodynamic uncertainties.