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Actuators
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New Control Schemes for Actuators—2nd Edition
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New Control Schemes for Actuators—2nd Edition

A special issue of Actuators (ISSN 2076-0825). This special issue belongs to the section "Control Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 7820

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Oscar Barambones

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Guest Editor
Department of System Engineering and Automation, Faculty of Engineering of Vitoria-Gasteiz, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Leioa, Spain
Interests: intelligent control; advanced control; robust control; adaptive control; wind turbine systems; PV systems; wireless control schemes; wireless sensor networks; smart sensors and actuators
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Jose Antonio Cortajarena

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Engineering School of Gipuzkoa, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Otaola 29, 20600 Eibar, Spain
Interests: advanced control of electric machines; power electronics; renewable energy; intelligent control; neural network control; fuzzy logic control; linear system control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Patxi Alkorta

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Systems Engineering and Automation, Faculty of Engineering, Gipuzkoa (Eibar), University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Avda Otaola N29, 20600 Eibar, Spain
Interests: sliding mode control; robust control; model predictive control; adaptive control; three-phase machine control; nonlinear system control; linear system control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are delighted to invite you to participate in the second edition of the Special Issue “New Control Schemes for Actuators”.

An actuator is a device that moves or controls some mechanism. It turns a control signal into a mechanical action, such as an electric motor. Actuators may be based on hydraulic, pneumatic, electric, thermal or mechanical means and may be powered by an electric current, hydraulic fluid or pneumatic pressure. However, increasingly, control algorithms are executed over a microcontroller or digital signal processor in order to drive these actuators.

Therefore, control systems implemented by software are key to increasing the reliability and performance of these actuators. The limitations of traditional control techniques for real control problems have motivated the invention of new control schemes to improve performance.

Therefore, due to the nonlinear dynamics and uncertainties usually present in actuators, the reliability and performance of these systems can be enhanced by employing advanced control schemes and/or using artificial intelligence.

This Special Issue of Actuators addresses the challenges in control design and implementation for actuators in order to increase the reliability and performance of these systems. Original submissions focusing on new control techniques and their practical implementation are welcome in this Special Issue. The issue will cover, but is not limited to:

  • Adaptive control schemes;
  • Robust control schemes;
  • Artificial Intelligence applied to control systems;
  • Sliding-mode-based control schemes;
  • Fuzzy-logic-based control schemes;
  • Neural-network-based control schemes;
  • Observer-based control schemes;
  • The practical implementation of advanced control schemes;
  • Wireless sensors in control schemes.

Prof. Dr. Oscar Barambones
Prof. Dr. Jose Antonio Cortajarena
Prof. Dr. Patxi Alkorta
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Actuators is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • intelligent control
  • real time implementation
  • nonlinear control
  • robust control
  • observer-based control

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 13817 KiB  
Article
Prescribed Performance Global Non-Singular Fast Terminal Sliding Mode Control of PMSM Based on Linear Extended State Observer
by Yifei Yao, Yaoming Zhuang, Yizhi Xie, Peng Xu and Chengdong Wu
Actuators 2025, 14(2), 65; https://doi.org/10.3390/act14020065 - 30 Jan 2025
Viewed by 497
Abstract
In manufacturing, the position tracking accuracy and stability of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors are often challenged by uncertainties, especially in complex environments. Existing control methods struggle to balance fast response with high-precision tracking. To address this, we propose a Prescribed Performance Global Non-Singular [...] Read more.
In manufacturing, the position tracking accuracy and stability of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors are often challenged by uncertainties, especially in complex environments. Existing control methods struggle to balance fast response with high-precision tracking. To address this, we propose a Prescribed Performance Global Non-Singular Fast Terminal Sliding Mode Control (PPGNFTSMC) method using a linear extended state observer (LESO). A smooth and bounded prescribed performance function is designed to ensure finite-time convergence while satisfying performance requirements such as overshoot and settling time. Based on this function, the system error is reconstructed to align the system response with predefined specifications. The reconstructed error is then used to design a global non-singular fast terminal sliding mode surface. A LESO is employed for real-time disturbance estimation, and the disturbance estimates, along with the sliding mode surface, are used to derive the control law for the position–speed integrated controller. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the comparison methods in transient response, tracking accuracy, and robustness across various signal types. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Control Schemes for Actuators—2nd Edition)
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19 pages, 7263 KiB  
Article
Active Composite Control of Disturbance Compensation for Vibration Isolation System with Uncertainty
by Zhijun Zhu, Yong Xiao, Minrui Zhou, Yongqiang Li and Dianlong Yu
Actuators 2024, 13(9), 334; https://doi.org/10.3390/act13090334 - 3 Sep 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1034
Abstract
The pointing and positioning accuracy of precision instruments in aerospace are often disturbed by low-frequency vibrations. An active/passive vibration isolation system is a feasible solution to suppress low-frequency vibrations. However, the vibration isolation performance of the active control strategy is seriously affected by [...] Read more.
The pointing and positioning accuracy of precision instruments in aerospace are often disturbed by low-frequency vibrations. An active/passive vibration isolation system is a feasible solution to suppress low-frequency vibrations. However, the vibration isolation performance of the active control strategy is seriously affected by the uncertainty of the system and the difficulty to meet the higher requirements of new-generation equipment. This paper proposes an active composite control (ACC) strategy for vibration isolation systems with uncertainty. The proposed ACC integrates feedforward control based on known systems and feedback control based on the Kalman filter for systems with uncertainty. Further, the derivation and stability analyses of the proposed ACC algorithm are provided, and the influence of system uncertainty on vibration isolation performance based on the proposed ACC is analyzed. Experimental verification is conducted and the experimental results confirm that the proposed ACC can effectively realize the low-frequency and wide-band vibration isolation for the system with uncertainty. Starting from 30 Hz, the vibration isolation performance of the proposed ACC with uncertainty is significantly improved than that of the ACC completely based on a deterministic system model. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Control Schemes for Actuators—2nd Edition)
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22 pages, 31417 KiB  
Article
Two-Stage Predefined-Time Exact Sliding Mode Control Based on Predefined-Time Exact Disturbance Observer
by Bojun Liu, Wenle Ma, Zhanpeng Zhang and Yingmin Yi
Actuators 2024, 13(4), 133; https://doi.org/10.3390/act13040133 - 6 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1693
Abstract
This paper is concerned with the predefined-time exact sliding mode control issue of a class of high-order uncertain nonlinear systems with disturbances. The proposed control scheme is composed of a predefined-time exact disturbance observer and a two-stage predefined-time exact sliding mode controller. The [...] Read more.
This paper is concerned with the predefined-time exact sliding mode control issue of a class of high-order uncertain nonlinear systems with disturbances. The proposed control scheme is composed of a predefined-time exact disturbance observer and a two-stage predefined-time exact sliding mode controller. The disturbance observer can estimate the system disturbances accurately within an arbitrary predefined observation time, and the time can be set as the handover time between two control stages. The classic sliding mode controller guarantees bounded system states in the first control stage. Then, a predefined-time sliding mode controller is designed based on time-varying tuning function, regulating the system states to exact zero within a final predefined settling time in the second stage. It is shown that the control input signal is always chattering-free with respect to time. The effectiveness and superiority of the proposed control scheme is demonstrated with simulation examples. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Control Schemes for Actuators—2nd Edition)
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20 pages, 1970 KiB  
Article
New Tuning Rules of PI+CI Controllers for First-Order Systems
by José Carlos Moreno, José González, Ana Navarro and José Luis Guzmán
Actuators 2024, 13(2), 67; https://doi.org/10.3390/act13020067 - 11 Feb 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1710
Abstract
The reset control is a simple nonlinear control approach where the states of the controller are conducted to zero when a particular condition is satisfied. The PI+CI is a controller that mixes the simplicity of PI controllers with the benefits of a reset [...] Read more.
The reset control is a simple nonlinear control approach where the states of the controller are conducted to zero when a particular condition is satisfied. The PI+CI is a controller that mixes the simplicity of PI controllers with the benefits of a reset action to mitigate the fundamental limitations of linear control. However, the tuning of this kind of controller, with three parameters, two for the linear part and one for the nonlinear one, is not trivial. In this paper, simple tuning rules for PI+CI are proposed for both tracking and regulation problems, assuming first-order dynamics for the plant. The resulting control scheme, for which the reset coefficient is computed from exponential functions, is simulated and compared with an ideal PI+CI where the reset coefficient is obtained using rules available in the literature. Similar results are obtained for the tracking problem, and optimal performance based on the Integral Absolute Error (IAE) is also obtained for the regulation problem. These new rules, in contrast to those already existing in the literature, depend only on closed-loop specifications. Furthermore, the framework based on the minimization of IAE, used to obtain the proposed rules, makes it possible to consider for the first time the tracking and regulation problems simultaneously, i.e., cases where setpoint changes and disturbance arrivals can occur at the same time before reaching a new steady state. The results are validated using a set of study cases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Control Schemes for Actuators—2nd Edition)
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19 pages, 6568 KiB  
Article
Design of an Optical Path Scanning Control System in a Portable Fourier Transform Spectrometer Based on Adaptive Feedforward–Nonlinear Proportional-Integral Cascade Composite Control
by Liangjie Zhi, Min Huang, Qin Wen, Han Gao and Wei Han
Actuators 2024, 13(1), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/act13010035 - 16 Jan 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2071
Abstract
In order to obtain highly accurate infrared spectra, the optical path scanning control system in a portable Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) must be able to realize highly stable reciprocal scanning. To address the positional localization and speed fluctuation problems of optical path scanning [...] Read more.
In order to obtain highly accurate infrared spectra, the optical path scanning control system in a portable Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) must be able to realize highly stable reciprocal scanning. To address the positional localization and speed fluctuation problems of optical path scanning control systems, an adaptive feedforward–nonlinear PI cascade composite control algorithm (AF-NLPI) is proposed. A physical model of an optical path scanning control system is established. Moreover, an adaptive feedforward compensator using a dynamic forgetting factor is proposed, and it was combined with a nonlinear PI cascade controller to form a composite controller. The control parameters were tuned using the atomic orbital search algorithm. Further, the simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the AF-NLPI can effectively improve the control accuracy and anti-interference ability of an optical path scanning control system in a portable FTS with high feasibility and practicality. By setting the scanning stroke of the system to 8 mm and scanning at 10 mm/s, the stability of the optical scanning speed reached 99.47% when controlled by the controller proposed in this paper, thus fulfilling the motion requirements for optical path scanning control systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Control Schemes for Actuators—2nd Edition)
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