Asymptotic stabilization of a nonlinear axially moving string by adaptive boundary control

In this paper, a robust adaptive boundary control for an axially moving string that shows nonlinear behavior resulting from spatially varying tension is investigated. A hydraulic actuator equipped with a damper is used as the control actuator at the right boundary of the string. The Lyapunov redesign method is employed to derive a robust control algorithm employing adaptation laws that estimate three unknown system parameters (mass per unit length of string, lumped mass of hydraulic actuator, and damping coefficient of damper) and an unknown boundary disturbance. The uniform asymptotic stability (when the three parameters are all unknown), the exponential stability (when they are known), and the uniform ultimate boundedness (with a bounded boundary disturbance) of the closed loop system are investigated. The convergence of the parameter estimates to the true values is shown. Numerical simulations are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed robust adaptive boundary control. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.