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University of Cambridge

Feedback control design for closed-loop oscillations via dominant system theory

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Stable oscillations, arising from nonlinear non-equilibrium dynamics, are an important class of behavior in both nature and engineering. For engineering applications like robotic locomotion, it is usually desirable to induce oscillations in a controlled manner. While plenty of feedback control methods have been developed for equilibrium behaviors in control theory, we still lack a systematic design framework to excite non-oscillatory systems into oscillations via feedback control. As a step towards that, this thesis aims to provide theoretically guaranteed feedback controller design protocols for stable oscillations. Inspired by the oscillator models in biology and electrical engineering, we propose two architectures for oscillation control design: the mixed feedback oscillator and the resonant positive feedback oscillator. Our design methods take advantage of the dominant system theory to trigger and modulate stable oscillations in closed loop. For the mixed feedback oscillator, we show how to achieve oscillations by tuning the control parameters: the balance between the positive and negative feedback networks and the global feedback gain. For the resonant positive feedback oscillator, we show how to trigger oscillations by designing its linear and nonlinear control units. Then we show how to implement the two control architectures with basic linear and nonlinear circuit elements. Finally, we extend the control design for the mixed feedback oscillator. Based on linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) for dominance analysis, we develop control algorithms that automatically return state feedback gains that also take robustness and passivity-based interconnection into consideration.

Degree

thesis:*
Name dc:type.qualificationname
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Level dc:type.qualificationlevel
Doctoral
Grantor dc:publisher.institution
University of Cambridge
Year dc:date.issued
2022

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Che, Weiming
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Forni, Fulvio

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Language dc:language
eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Author Identifier
0000-0001-8105-1704
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/352859

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Cambridge University
Base URL
api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Che, Weiming. Feedback control design for closed-loop oscillations via dominant system theory. Doctoral thesis, University of Cambridge, 2022. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.99057