Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Active disturbance rejection control: some recent experimental and industrial case studies

  • Published:
Control Theory and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper presents a summary of some recent experimental and industrial case studies of active disturbance rejection control (ADRC). ADRC is a novel disturbance estimation and rejection concept, leading to a new technology with a distinct advantage where, unlike most existing methods, disturbances, internal and external, are actively estimated and rejected. Applications of the new approach in solving industry-wide bench mark problems have led to a slew of innovative solutions. The scope of the applications shown in this paper includes motion control, robotic-enhanced limb rehabilitation trainings, fuel cell systems, and the two-mass-spring benchmark problem. Recent production line validation results obtained are also included.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. J. Han. Active disturbance rejection controller and its applicationss. Control and Decision, 1998, 13(1): 19–23 (in Chinese).

    Google Scholar 

  2. J. Han. From PID to active disturbance rejection control. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 2009, 56(3): 900–906.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Z. Gao, Y. Huang, J. Han. An alternative paradigm for control system design. Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Orlando: IEEE, 2001: 4578–4585.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Z. Gao. Scaling and bandwidth-parameterization based controller tuning. Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Denver: IEEE, 2003: 4989–4996.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Y. Huang, W. Xue. Active disturbance rejection control: methodology and theoretical analysis. ISA Transactions, 2014, 53(4): 963–976.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  6. N. Minorsky. Directional stability and automatically steered bodies. Journal of the American Society for Naval Engineers, 2010, 34(2): 280–309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. J. G. Ziegler, N. B. Nichols. Optimal settings for automatic controllers. ASME Transactions, 1942, 64: 759–768.

    Google Scholar 

  8. W. S. Levine (ed.). The Control Handbook. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1996.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  9. Special Issue on The Theory/Practice Gap in Aerospace Control. IEEE Control Systems Magazine, 1999, 19(6).

  10. D. S. Bernstein. On Bridging the Theory/Practice Gap. IEEE Control Systems Magazine, 1999, 19(6): 64–70.

    Google Scholar 

  11. J. S. Bay. Beyond our control? IEEE Control Systems Magazine, 2003, 23(1): 9–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Z. Gao, R. Rhinehart. Theory vs. practice: The challenges from industry. Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Boston: IEEE, 2004: 1341–1349.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Q. Zheng, Z. Chen, Z. Gao. A practical approach to disturbance decoupling control. Control Engineering Practice, 2009, 17(9): 1016–1025.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Q. Zheng, L. Dong, D. H. Lee, et al. Active disturbance rejection control and implementation for MEMS gyroscopes. IEEE Transactions on Control System Technology, 2009, 17(6): 1432–1438.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Q. Zheng, Z. Gao. An energy saving, factory-validated disturbance decoupling control design for extrusion processes. Proceedings of the 10th World Congress on Intelligent Control and Automation, Beijing: IEEE, 2012: 2891–2896.

    Google Scholar 

  16. M. Sun, Z. Wang, Y. Wang, et al. On low-velocity compensation of brushless DC servo in the absence of friction model. IEEE Transactions On Industrial Electronics, 2013, 60(9): 3897–3905.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. S. Zhao, Z. Gao. An active disturbance rejection based approach to vibration suppression in two-inertia systems. Asian Journal of Control, 2013, 15(2): 350–362.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  18. R.Madonski, M. Kordasz, P. Sauer. Application of a disturbance-rejection controller for robotic-enhanced limb rehabilitation trainings. ISA Transactions, 2014, 53(4): 899–908.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Q. Zheng, H. Richter, Z. Gao. Active disturbance rejection control for piezoelectric beam. Asian Journal of Control, 2015, 17(1): 1–11.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  20. D. Zhao, Q. Zheng, F. Gao, et al. Disturbance decoupling control of an ultra-high speed centrifugal compressor for the air management of fuel cell systems. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2014, 39(4): 1788–1798.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. D. Li, C. Li, Z. Gao, et al. On active disturbance rejection in temperature regulation of the proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Journal of Power Sources, 2015, 283: 452–463.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. H. Xie, K. Song, Y. He. A hybrid disturbance rejection control solution for variable valve timing system of gasoline engines. ISA Transactions, 2014, 53(4): 889–898.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. H. Zhang, S. Zhao, Z, Gao. An active disturbance rejection control solution for the two-mass-spring benchmark problem. Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Boston: IEEE, 2016: 1566–1571.

    Google Scholar 

  24. M. Sun, Z. Gao, Z. Wang, et al. On the model-free compensation of coulomb friction in the absence of the velocity measurement. Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurement and Control–Transactions Of the ASME, 2017, 139(12): DOI 10.1115/1.4037267.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Q. Zheng, L. Q. Gao, Z. Gao. On estimation of plant dynamics and disturbance from input-output data in real time. Proceedingsof the 16th IEEE InternationalConference on Control Applications, Singapore: IEEE, 2007: 1167–1172.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Q. Zheng, L. Q. Gao, Z. Gao. On stability analysis of active disturbance rejection control for nonlinear time-varying plants with unknown dynamics. Proceedings of the 46th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control New Orleans: IEEE, 2007: 3501–3506.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Q. Zheng, L. Q. Gao, Z. Gao. On validation of extended state observer through analysis and experimentation. Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurement and Control–Transactions Of the ASME, 2012, 134(2): DOI 10.1115/1.4005364.

    Google Scholar 

  28. G. Tian, Z. Gao. Frequency response analysis of active disturbance rejection based control system. Proceedings of the 16th IEEE International Conference on Control Applications, Part of IEEE Multi-conference on Systems and Control, Singapore: IEEE, 2007: 1595–1599.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Q. Zheng, L. Dong, Z. Gao. Control and rotation rate estimation of vibrational MEMS gyroscopes. Proceedings of the 16th IEEE International Conference on Control Applications, Part of IEEE Multi-conference on Systems and Control, Singapore: IEEE, 2007: 118–123.

    Google Scholar 

  30. W. Xue, Y. Huang. On frequency domain analysis of ADRC for uncertain system. Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Washington D. C.: IEEE, 2013: 6652–6657.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Y. Huang, J. Han. Analysis and design for nonlinear continuous extended state observer. Chin Bull, 2000, 45(1): 1938–1944.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  32. B. Guo, Z. Zhao. On the convergence of an extended state observer for nonlinear systems with uncertainty. Systems & Control Letters, 2011, 60(6): 420–430.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  33. B. Guo, Z. Zhao. On convergence of the nonlinear active disturbance rejection control for MIMO systems. SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, 2013, 51(2): 1727–1757.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  34. W. Xue, Y. Huang. Comparison of the DOB based control, a special kind of PID control and ADRC. Proceedings of the American Control Conference, San Francisco: IEEE, 2013: 4373–4379.

    Google Scholar 

  35. W. Xue, Y. Huang. On performance analysis of ADRC for nonlinear uncertain systems with unknown dynamics and discontinuous disturbances. Proceedings of the Chinese Control Conference, Xi’an: IEEE, 2013: 1102–1107.

    Google Scholar 

  36. W. Xue, Y. Huang. On performance analysis of ADRC for a class of MIMO lower-triangular nonlinear uncertain systems. ISA Transactions, 2014, 53(4): 955–962.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  37. B. Guo, F. Jin. Sliding mode and active disturbance rejection control to stabilization of one-dimensional anti-stable wave equations subject to disturbance in boundary input. IEEE Transactions On Automatic Control, 2013, 58(5): 1269–1274.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  38. B. Guo, F. Jin. The active disturbance rejection and sliding mode control approach to the stabilization of the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation with boundary input disturbance. Automatica, 2013, 49(9): 2911–2918.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  39. J. Li, Y. Xia, X. Qi, et al. Absolute stability analysis of non-linear active disturbance rejection control for single-input-single-output systems via the circle criterion method. IET Control Theory & Applications, 2015, 9(15): 2320–2329.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  40. S. Shao, Z. Gao. On the conditions of exponential stability in active disturbance rejection control based on singular perturbation analysis. International Journal of Control, 2017, 90(10): 2085–2097.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  41. B. Guo, Z. Zhao. A novel extended state observer for output tracking of MIMO systems with mismatched uncertainty. IEEE Transactions On Automatic Control, 2018, 63(1): 211–218.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  42. S. Chen, W. Xue, S. Zhong, et al. On comparison of modified ADRCs for nonlinear uncertain systems with time delay. Science China Information Sciences, 2018, 61(7): DOI 10.1007/s11432-017–9403-x.

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  43. B. Wie, D. S. Bernstein. A benchmark problem for robust control design. Proceedings of the American Control Conference, San Diego: American Automatic Control Council, 1990: 961–962.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Ohio’s Polymer. https://doi.org/polymerohio.org.

  45. Texas Instruments. Achieve improved motion and efficiency for advanced motor control designs in minutes with TI’S new InstaSPINTM-Motion Techonoly. The Wall Street Journal, 2013.

  46. Texas Instruments. https://doi.org/www.ti.com/.

  47. L. Sun, D. Li, K. Hu, et al. On tuning and practical implementation of active disturbance rejection controller: a case study from a regenerative heater in a 1000 MW power plant. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 2016, 55(23): 6686–6695.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aerospace, Industrial, and Mechanical Engineering, California Baptist University, Riverside, CA, 92504, USA

    Qing Zheng

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, 44115, USA

    Zhiqiang Gao

Authors
  1. Qing Zheng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Zhiqiang Gao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Qing Zheng.

Additional information

Qing ZHENG is an Associate Professor in the Aerospace, Industrial, and Mechanical Engineering Department at California Baptist University, received the Doctor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from Cleveland State University in 2009. Before joining California Baptist University, she worked at Gannon University for nine years and at Beijing Institute of Control Devices in China for five years. Her research interests include the following areas: active disturbance rejection control, multivariable control and optimization with emphasis on their applications in biomedical systems, power systems, MEMS, fuel cell, cargo ship steering, chemical processes, and other real industrial problems.

Zhiqiang GAO received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 1990 and has taught at Cleveland State University ever since. Faced with ever widening chasm between control theory and practice, Dr. Gao returned to the roots of controls by collaborating extensively with engineers at NASA and industry in solving real world problems, from which the foundation and authenticity of research were rebuilt. Collaborating with Prof. Jingqing Han, Dr. Gao worked quietly on active disturbance rejection control for over 20 years, nurturing it from its early, conceptual stage to a maturing and emerging industrial control technology. In doing so, he made an obscure idea clear and established firmly a general design principle in dealing with uncertainties in industrial settings, often with staggering improvements in performance and energy saving. Asking basic, rudimentary question in research and in teaching, Dr. Gao and his teamfind creative solutions in practice and vitality in education.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zheng, Q., Gao, Z. Active disturbance rejection control: some recent experimental and industrial case studies. Control Theory Technol. 16, 301–313 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11768-018-8142-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11768-018-8142-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation