A frequency domain comparison of disturbance observer based control schemes

Abstract

In this article, an analysis and synthesis of widely used linear disturbance observer based robust control approaches are presented. The main objective of this article is to provide an exhaustive comparison of disturbance observer based robust control approaches and to handle the structural details of each approach for gaining insight about the complexity of each approach. Toward this goal, nine performances and robustness equations portraying useful insights for understanding and analyzing control systems are derived by examining their common and equivalent block diagrams. Four of them are selected as gang of four equations, namely complementary sensitivity function, sensitivity function, disturbance sensitivity function and noise sensitivity function. Robustness and disturbance rejection performance analysis of all linear disturbance observer based control schemes and classical feedback control scheme are done using gang of four equations. With these representations, two tables discussing all prime issues and facilitating the selection of the best approach are obtained. Our research stipulates critical facts and figures of each scheme by considering the derived gang of four equations, which can be used for choosing the most appropriate disturbance observer based control approach for a given robust control problem. It is concluded that the uncertainty disturbance estimator approach is superior when time delay type uncertainty is involved in the model. Unfolding this is critical as time delay is an inevitable fact in most industrial control systems. The findings also emphasize that time domain disturbance observer based control approach is proficient if there is no process time delay.