Output regulation and tracking for linear ODE-hyperbolic PDE–ODE systems

This paper proposes a constructive solution to the output regulation — output tracking problem for a general class of interconnected systems. The class of systems under consideration consists of a linear 2 × 2 hyperbolic Partial Differential Equations (PDE) system coupled at both ends with Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs). The proximal ODE system, which represents actuator dynamics, is actuated. Colocated measurements are available. The distal ODE system represents the load dynamics. The control objective is to ensure, in the presence of a disturbance signal (regulation problem), that a virtual output exponentially converges to zero. By doing so, we can ensure that a state component of the distal ODE state robustly converges towards a known reference trajectory (output tracking problem) even in the presence of a disturbance with a known structure. The proposed approach combines the backstepping methodology and frequency analysis techniques. We first map the original system to a simpler target system using an invertible integral change of coordinates. From there, we design an adequate full-state feedback controller in the frequency domain. Following a similar approach, we propose a state observer that estimates the state and reconstructs the disturbance from the available measurement. Combining the full-state feedback controller with the state estimation results in a dynamic output-feedback control law. Finally, existing filtering techniques guarantee the closed-loop system robustness properties. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd