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A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Systems & Control Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2027 | Viewed by 2382

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Editors

Dr. Chang Duan

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Guest Editor

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX 77446, USA
Interests: robust control; hybrid systems; mechatronics and robotics

Dr. Chengzhi Yuan

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Guest Editor

Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881, USA
Interests: hybrid system analysis and control; distributed control of multi-agent systems; dynamical pattern recognition and classification; data-driven modeling; multi-robot coordination; unmanned vehicles

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Robust control has become a cornerstone in the management of dynamic systems subject to uncertainties, disturbances, and modeling inaccuracies. As real-world systems—from industrial machinery to autonomous vehicles and energy grids—operate in increasingly unpredictable environments, developing control strategies that ensure stability, performance, and reliability is critically important.

This Special Issue is dedicated to the latest advances in robust control theory, algorithm development, and practical applications for dynamic systems. It welcomes contributions that address challenges posed by uncertainties in system parameters, external disturbances, nonlinearities, and time-varying dynamics across diverse domains. Both theoretical developments and experimental validations are highly encouraged.

The scope of the Special Issue includes, but is not limited to the following:

Robust control methods for linear and nonlinear dynamic systems.
Adaptive and resilient control strategies for uncertain and time-varying environments.
Fault-tolerant control and disturbance rejection approaches.
Robust control applications in robotics, aerospace, manufacturing, power systems, and transportation.
Data-driven and learning-based robust control algorithms.
Analysis and synthesis tools for robustness assessment and performance guarantees.

Original research articles, comprehensive reviews, and case studies that advance the understanding and deployment of robust control techniques are invited. This Special Issue aspires to foster interdisciplinary contributions that push the boundaries of robust control in dynamic systems, supporting both academic and practical advancements in the field.

Dr. Chang Duan
Dr. Chengzhi Yuan
Guest Editors

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Keywords

robust stability
complex dynamic systems
robust controller synthesis
control applications

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 1838 KB

Open AccessArticle

Prescribed Performance Control for Electro-Hydrostatic Erecting System Based on Dual-RISE Scheme

by Weilin Zhu, Xiaowei Yang, Xiaochuan Yu and Jianyong Yao

Electronics 2026, 15(15), 3463; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics15153463 - 5 Aug 2026

Viewed by 82

Abstract

Unmodeled uncertainties, such as friction and stage-change collision of the hydraulic cylinder, along with system disturbances, exist in the multi-link erecting system and impede high-precision erecting angle tracking. To tackle these challenges, this study develops a novel control framework characterized by asymptotic prescribed performance based on a distributed dual robust integral of the sign of the error (Dual-RISE) for the electro-hydrostatic multi-link erecting system. First, a precise system model is established by integrating complex multi-link kinematics with the pressure-flow dynamics of the two-stage hydraulic cylinder. A prescribed performance function (PPF) and nonlinear error transformation are then introduced to strictly constrain the tracking error within predefined transient and steady-state boundaries. The proposed framework integrates a distributed dual-loop RISE architecture to simultaneously reject matched and unmatched uncertainties, mathematically enforcing semi-global asymptotic convergence of the tracking error to zero without requiring infinite high-gain feedback. Comparative experiments with Dual-RISE and VFPI controllers demonstrate superior tracking accuracy and boundary protection under different erecting conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robust Control of Dynamic Systems)

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17 pages, 5048 KB

Open AccessArticle

What Should a Network-Aware Agent Observe? A Systematic Analysis of Metadata Features for Reinforcement Learning Control over Wireless Links

by André Gilerson and Robert H. Schmitt

Electronics 2026, 15(14), 3129; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics15143129 - 16 Jul 2026

Viewed by 269

Abstract

Recent work has shown that exposing Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) agents to network impairments during training allows them to perform better when deployed in realistic networks than ones trained under idealized conditions. We investigate systematically whether and what kind of information about the state of the network is beneficial to add to the agent’s observations. For this, we train PPO and SAC agents under a fixed impairment profile while varying the augmented observation space across eight feature groups on two common control tasks with different impairment sensitivity often seen in DRL research (CheetahRun and FingerTurnHard implemented in MuJoCo). Our results show that per-observation information about whether the packet was dropped or delayed recovers most of the performance of the trained algorithm, while adding statistics about latency, jitter, and packet loss provides little benefit or even destabilizes the training for PPO. SAC seems to be largely insensitive to the additional metadata. A window-size ablation shows that latency and jitter statistics provide no benefit across any tested window size, while the effects of the loss statistics are strongly window dependent. These results argue against a universal network metadata observation augmentation vector and in favor of algorithm- and task-specific feature selection. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robust Control of Dynamic Systems)

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44 pages, 3432 KB

Open AccessArticle

Performance Enhancement of BLDC Motor Drives Using Predictive Current Control and Sensorless Speed Estimation: A PIL Validation Study

by Dehmeche Ibrahim, Kechida Ridha, Habib Benbouhenni, Bouzidi Riad, Ghadbane Houssam Eddine and Nicu Bizon

Electronics 2026, 15(14), 3101; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics15143101 - 14 Jul 2026

Viewed by 362

Abstract

This paper presents a high-performance sensorless control strategy for Brushless DC (BLDC) motors based on predictive current control combined with back-EMF-based speed and position estimation. The main objective is to achieve accurate speed regulation and fast dynamic response without the need for mechanical speed sensors, thereby reducing system cost, improving reliability, and simplifying hardware complexity. The proposed predictive current control algorithm ensures precise current tracking and rapid torque production under varying operating conditions, including speed reference changes and load torque disturbances. A comprehensive comparative analysis is conducted between the proposed sensorless approach and a conventional sensored control scheme. The obtained results demonstrate that the sensorless controller achieves speed, torque, and current performance that is nearly identical to the sensored system, with negligible differences in rise time, overshoot, steady-state error, and torque ripple. The dynamic response remains smooth and well-damped, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed estimation technique in maintaining accurate rotor synchronization under transient conditions. In addition, the influence of a proportional–integral speed controller with and without anti-windup compensation is investigated. The results show that the anti-windup mechanism significantly improves transient performance by reducing overshoot, eliminating startup undershoot, shortening settling time, and mitigating speed estimation errors during large reference changes and actuator saturation conditions, while preserving zero steady-state error. To validate the real-time feasibility of the proposed control strategy, a Processor-in-the-Loop (PIL) co-simulation platform is implemented using the C2000 LaunchXL-F28379D digital signal processor. The PIL results confirm that the algorithm can be executed under strict real-time constraints with acceptable computational burden, memory usage, and execution time. Overall, the proposed sensorless predictive current control strategy demonstrates strong robustness, high accuracy, and practical applicability for industrial BLDC motor drive systems operating under diverse and dynamic conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robust Control of Dynamic Systems)

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35 pages, 5088 KB

Open AccessArticle

Root Contour-Based Robust Admissibility Assessment of Controller Tunings Under Parametric Uncertainty

by Vesela Karlova-Sergieva

Electronics 2026, 15(12), 2501; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics15122501 - 6 Jun 2026

Viewed by 229

Abstract

This study proposes a geometric procedure for robust controller tuning under parametric uncertainty, based on root-contour analysis of the closed-loop control system. For a fixed candidate controller tuning, the set of possible pole locations induced by the admissible variations of the control plant parameters is constructed. Robust admissibility is formulated as a geometric set-inclusion problem, requiring this set to remain inside a prescribed dynamic performance region in the complex s-plane. A distinction is introduced between nominal admissibility, robust stability, and robust admissibility, showing that stability over the entire uncertainty set is not sufficient to guarantee the desired dynamic performance. To quantify the root contours, several indices are defined, including the dispersion along the real and imaginary axes, the maximum pole displacement with respect to the nominal pole locations, and the geometric margin to the boundary of the performance region. The procedure is applied to the selection and verification of PI controller tunings for an uncertain single-input–single-output (SISO) control system and is further validated through examples with different structures of parametric uncertainty, including a system with a single uncertain parameter and a PID-controlled system with several uncertain control plant parameters. The results show that root-contour analysis can distinguish tunings that are only robustly stable from tunings that preserve the prescribed dynamic performance over the entire uncertainty set. Thus, the method can be used as a practical tool for the diagnosis, comparison, and selection of controller tunings under parametric uncertainty. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robust Control of Dynamic Systems)

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22 pages, 3099 KB

Open AccessArticle

A New Hyperbolic PID-Type Control Scheme for a Direct-Drive Pendulum

by Javier Blanco Rico, Fernando Reyes-Cortes and Basil Mohammed Al-Hadithi

Electronics 2026, 15(5), 942; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics15050942 - 25 Feb 2026

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 744

Abstract

This paper addresses the position control problem for a Lagrangian pendulum. Using a strict Lyapunov function, a rigorous analysis is presented to prove that the closed-loop system equilibrium point composed of the pendulum dynamics and a classical linear PID control is globally asymptotically stable. Motivated by these results, the theoretical proposal is extended to analyze a novel hyperbolic PID-type control scheme; reformulating the Lyapunov function, global asymptotic stability of the equilibrium point for the corresponding closed-loop equation is demonstrated. The proposed hyperbolic scheme is a rational function with bounded control action composed of a suitable combination of hyperbolic sine and cosine functions. The hyperbolic structure is used in the proportional, integral, and derivative terms of the control algorithm to drive the position error and joint velocity to zero. Experimental results of both a linear PID and a novel hyperbolic PID-type controller on a direct-drive pendulum are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and performance of the proposed control algorithm. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Robust Control of Dynamic Systems)

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