COMPUTER AIDED CONTROL SYSTEM DESIGN USING THE STABLE FACTORIZATION APPROACH

A RESEARCH PROGRAM IS PROPOSED FOR PHASE I OF A THREE PHASE RESEARCH PROJECT WHOSE ULTIMATE AIM IS TO DEVELOP A PRACTICAL DESIGN METHODOLOGY FOR CONTROL SYSTEM DESIGN BASEDON THE STABLE FACTORIZATION (SF) APPROACH. THE SF APPROACH IS A RECENTLY DEVELOPED THEORY THAT IS CAPABLE OF SOLVING SEVERAL PREVIOUSLY UNSOLVED (THOUGH WIDELY ENCOUNTERED) PROBLEMS IN CONTROLLER DESIGN. THESE INCLUDE THE DESIGN OF ROBUST CONTROLLERS FOR IMPRECISELY KNOWN SYSTEMS, AND THE DESIGN OF FAULT-TOLERANT CONTROL SYSTEMS, AMONG OTHERS. WHILE THE ANALYTICAL ASPECTS OF THE SF APPROACH ARE FAIRLY WELL-DEVELOPED IN CERTAIN DIRECTIONS IMPORTANT THEORETICAL PROBLEMS STILL REMAIN TO BE SOLVED. AS WELL, THE COMPUTATIONAL ASPECTS OF THE THEORY ARE NOT AS YET WELL UNDERSTOOD, THOUGH THERE ARE GROUNDS FOR BELIEVING THAT ALL COMPUTATIONS REQUIRED BY THE SF APPROACH ARE RELIABLE AND NUMERICALLY STABLE. ACCORDINGLY, PHASE I OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT CONSISTS OF THRE TASKS, OF WHICH THE FIRST IS TO STUDY THE NUMERICAL ASPECTS OF IMPLEMENTING THE SF APPROACH,WHILE THE LAST TWO ADDRESS SOME THEORETICAL PROBLEMS OF PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE.