In this paper, we study the performance of a recently proposed approach for dynamic control allocation (DCA) for an overactuated quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with tilting and twisting propellers. In DCA, overactuation is exploited to modify a given closed-loop system so that the plant’s output is left unchanged while the steady-state evolution of the control input is optimized with respect to a Lagrange cost. This research is built over an innovative DCA solution recently proposed by the authors, exploiting periodic piecewise polynomial signals. Interestingly, even though the dynamics of the mentioned UAV are highly non-linear, a suitable choice of DCA strategy allows to design of the allocation module simply by using tools developed for the Linear Time Invariant (LTI) case.

This paper addresses the problem of dynamic input allocation for nonlinear systems that exhibit a redundant input configuration and admit a periodic steady-state behavior. The control task is formulated in a general framework that encompasses a wide variety of practical scenarios, providing greater flexibility in the definition of the operators involved. The peculiar challenges posed by nonlinear control allocation problems are then examined from a different perspective, offered by a formulation in the context of optimal control theory. The similarities and differences between the two formulations are highlighted and discussed, with the aim of establishing a link between the two subjects in order to share their respective tools and results. Finally, an algorithm to determine approximate solutions to the control allocation problem is developed and refined using dynamic optimization tools.

This work addresses the input current allocation problem for the magnetic control system of the Tokamak à Configuration Variable (TCV). Given the available actuators (i.e. poloidal field coils) on the TCV device, this work aims to optimize the input current configuration concerning a desired cost function, minimizing the effect on the controlled output, which is, in this case, considered as the plasma shape. This request is formulated as a dynamic control allocation problem, and a solution is proposed, discussed, and validated by numerical simulations on TCV models and data.

Estimating the velocity of a mass involved in nonsmooth impacts is a challenging problem because of their hybrid nature, especially when the restitution coefficient and the orientation of the tangent line at the point of impact are unknown. In this paper, various hybrid observers are proposed for some families of mechanical systems to estimate the velocities, the restitution coefficient, and the orientation of the constraint, under the assumption that only the positions are measured. The stability properties of the corresponding error dynamics are proved, showing semi-global exponential convergence to zero. First, the performance of the proposed observer is tested in some simulation runs. Secondly, the analysis is carried out in experimental tests, by measuring the position of the impacting body through slow and fast camcorders, with a post-processing of the recorded video. A final experimental evaluation is done in real-time with a hardware architecture based on a Raspberry Pi.