Time-Delay Estimation Improves Active Disturbance Rejection Control for Time-Delay Nonlinear Systems

Lately, active disturbance rejection control (ADRC), a model-independent controller, has become popular for combating various forms of uncertain disturbances incurred in industrial applications. ADRC was validated for external disturbances, internal disturbances, and nonlinearities incurred under realistic scenarios. Time delay challenges all controllers, especially when it coexists with nonlinearities. This paper investigates the impacts of time delay and backlash-like hysteresis nonlinearity in ADRC-controlled systems. These impacts are analyzed, as in the case study, in two ADRC-based methods, namely the ADRC with delayed input method and the predictive extended state observer (PESO)-based ADRC (PESO-ADRC) method. To improve the system response and to attain a decent attenuation of uncertainties, the time-delay estimation (TDE) mechanism is introduced to the concerned ADRC-based methods. Experimental studies are conducted to verify the effectiveness and stability of the proposed TDE-ADRC methods. The results demonstrate the robustness and decent recovery of the transient response after the adverse impact of the backlash-like hysteresis on both concerned ADRC-controlled systems.