Abstract
The present paper advocates the use of ODE-based (instead of algebra-based) constraints on the output variables of a controlled system, and the use of dynamic control laws (instead of static control laws) — when finite but small errors in honoring the constraints are considered acceptable. It is assumed that the sensor signals are reliable and have good signal-to-noise ratios, that the controller has ample computational power, and that the hardware/software “sampling time” ts is much smaller than the system characteristic time tg. A universal dynamic control law is proposed which does not require detailed knowledge of the system itself — and is therefore completely robust with respect to uncertainties of the system — provided the control problem to be solved is reasonable. The meaning of the equivocal word “reasonable” will be explained.
