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The unfalsified control concept: A direct path from experiment to controller

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Book cover Feedback Control, Nonlinear Systems, and Complexity

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences ((LNCIS,volume 202))

Abstract

The philosophical issues pertaining to the problem of going from experiment to controller design are discussed. The “unfalsified control” concept is introduced as a framework for determining control laws whose ability to meet given performance specifications is at least not invalidated (i.e., not falsified) by the available data. The approach is “model-free” in the sense that no plant model is required — only plant input-output data. When implemented in real time, the result is an adaptive robust controller which modifies itself whenever a new piece of data invalidates the present controller. A simple design example based on fixed-order LTI controllers and an L 2-inequality performance criterion is presented.

The task of science is to stake out the limits of the knowable and to center the consciousness within them.

Rudolf Virchow — Berlin, 1849

Research supported in part by AFOSR grant F49620-92-J-0014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electrical Engineering—Systems, University of Southern California, 90089-2563, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Michael G. Safonov & Tung-Ching Tsao

Authors
  1. Michael G. Safonov
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  2. Tung-Ching Tsao
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Editor information

Bruce Allen Francis Allen Robert Tannenbaum

Additional information

Dedicated to George Zames on his 60th birthday.

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© 1995 Springer-Verlag London Limited

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Safonov, M.G., Tsao, TC. (1995). The unfalsified control concept: A direct path from experiment to controller. In: Francis, B.A., Tannenbaum, A.R. (eds) Feedback Control, Nonlinear Systems, and Complexity. Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences, vol 202. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0027678

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0027678

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-19943-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-39364-1

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