J Control Theory Appl 2012 10 (1) 5055

DOI 10.1007/s11768-012-8221-3

A nonlinear repetitive controller

Xin TANG 1 , An LUO 2 , Chunming TU 2
1.College of Electrical and Information Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha Hunan 410076, China;
2.College of Electrical and Information Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha Hunan 410082, China

Abstract: A nonlinear repetitive controller is proposed. The new method is mainly composed of a repetitive control
part and a deadband relay. Whenever the input error goes beyond the range of the deadband relay, the control loop is driven
dominantly by the deadband relay to obtain fast dynamic response and meanwhile to avoid the saturation of the repetitive
control part. After the input error falls within the range of the deadband relay, the deadband relay automatically turns off
and the repetitive control alone governs the current control to eliminate the steady state error. A systematic methodology
is established and it is linked to the conventional control system design. The proposed scheme is practically applied to the
current control of active lter. Experimental results veried the feasibility of the proposed method.
Keywords: Nonlinear repetitive control; Active lter; Dynamic response

1 Introduction control algorithm has to nd the trade-off between the sys-

According to [13], repetitive control theory derived
from the internal model principle provides a solution for
eliminating periodic errors which occur in a dynamic sys-
tem. A repetitive controller can be viewed as a periodic
waveform generator augmented within the control loop of a
control system, so that the periodic errors can be eliminated.
References [46] developed the repetitive controller and ap-
plied it to various industrial applications including power
electronic systems such as rectiers, inverters and active l-
ters. In practice, the standard repetitive controller that only
has a pure internal mode often results in very narrow closed-
loop bandwidth due to the large phase shift of the inter-
nal mode. This means that such a repetitive control system
may cause sluggish transient response and has poor track-
ing performance, although it is able to track the periodic
input perfectly at the steady state. Reference [7] introduced
a so-called regeneration spectrum to estimate the locus of
the dominant closed-loop poles of the repetitive control sys-
tem. In fact, in a control system, the design of the repetitive
portion of the controller can be separated from the conven-
tional servo-controller. In this way, the repetitive controller
can be added afterwards without disturbing the existing sta-
ble servo-controller. Reference [8] presented some insights
into the tradeoff between system stability and tracking per-
formance by combining the regeneration spectrum and the
sensitivity function. For time-varying systems or systems
with many plant uncertainties, references [9, 10] developed
adaptive repetitive control schemes to eliminate periodic er-
rors. Although these methods can track the changing plant
dynamics, they have the drawback that the number of pa-
rameters to be estimated is proportional to the frequency
modes selected to be cancelled. Reference [11] presented
the repetitive control combined with conventional PI to im-
prove the dynamic performance. However, the improved
Received 27 November 2008; revised 8 April 2011.
This work was supported by the National High Technology Research and Development of China (No. 2004AA001032), the Planed Science and
Technology Project of Hunnan Province (No. 2010FJ3032), and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunnan Province (No. 11JJ5034).

c South China University of Technology and Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, CAS and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012
tem stability and the dynamic performance for too large
proportional parameter will cause the system unstable. In
[6, 12, 13], an odd-harmonic repetitive control can introduce
high gain only at odd harmonic frequencies and has been
applied to active lters. In this method, however, dynamic
response rarely has been taken into account. In this paper,
an alternative nonlinear repetitive control method, which is
mainly composed of a repetitive control part and a deadband
relay, is proposed to obtain better dynamic response than a
basic repetitive control. The proposed scheme, furthermore,
is practically applied to the current control of active power
lter in which the reference and disturbance signals appear-
ing in control loop, in steady state, are always periodic sig-
nals. Experimental examples demonstrate the simplicity and
effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
2 Principle of nonlinear repetitive controller
Repetitive control, which can be viewed as a waveform
generator based on the internal model principle, can accom-
plish perfect tracking in the steady state if the generator for
all frequency modes of the periodic signal is included in the
control loop.
A generator for periodic signals is shown in Fig. 1 (a)
where x(t) is input signal and c(t) is output signal. Such a
delay system has the transfer function 1/(1 esT ), which
has an innite number of poles on the imaginary axis at
jkwn ; k = 0, 1, 2, . . . , where wn = 2/T . It is ex-
pected from the internal model principle that the asymptotic
tracking for exogenous periodic signals can be achieved
by incorporating the plug-in model 1/(1 esT ) into the
closed-loop system [8].
A typical repetitive controller is shown in Fig. 1 (b) where
Kq (s) is a low-pass lter. This low-pass lter cascaded with
the time delay would in principle restrict the bandwidth of
 X. Tang et al. / J Control Theory Appl 2012 10 (1) 5055
the controller and at the same time reinforce the stability of
overall system. On the other hand, however, Kq (s) only al-
lows the specied harmonics of input signal to pass, subject
to the lter bandwidth, and inuence the steady-state char-
acteristics of the controller. The design of Kq (s) is nom-
inally made by achieving the tradeoff of tracking perfor-
mance and system stability.
The proposed nonlinear repetitive controller is shown in
Fig. 1 (c) where Gl (s) is a lead compensator. This new
method is mainly composed of a repetitive control part and
a deadband relay which is a relay with a deadband in the
vicinity of zero input. Whenever the input error goes be-
yond the range of the deadband relay, the current control
loop is driven dominantly by the deadband relay with a near-
maximum control output, and then obtains fast dynamic re-
sponse, at the same time avoids the saturation of repetitive
control part. After the input error falls within the range of
the deadband relay, the deadband relay automatically turns
off and the repetitive control alone governs the control sys-
tem to eliminate the steady state error.
Fig. 1 The repetitive control.
3 System design methodology
For a controlled plant Go (s), the feedback design is to de-
termine at least a controller K(s) such that the unity feed-
back system is internally stable. Fig. 2 shows a nonlinear
repetitive control system where Gp (s) = K(s)Go (s) is a
proper rational function, r(t) is reference input, y(t) is sys-
tem output and e(t) is tracking error.
Fig. 2 A nonlinear repetitive control system.
As the deadband relay will automatically turn off when
the tracking error becomes small, the repetitive control part
51
can be designed independently.
3.1 Design of the repetitive control part
The transfer function of the repetitive control part in
Fig. 1 can be written as
1
Grc (s) = , (1)
1 Kq (s)esT
and where T represents the period of the input signal.
Let K(s) be a predesigned controller such that the
closed-loop system So (s) = 1/(1 + Gp (s)) is internally
stable, and let Kq (s) = 1/(1 + q s) with Kq (s) = 1,
where   denotes the H -norm of a stable transfer func-
tion.
When the repetitive control part works alone, the closed-
loop characteristic equation of Fig. 2 is given by
1 + Gp (s) Kq (s)esT = 0. (2)
Let the regeneration spectrum is dened as
R(w) := |Kq (jw)So (jw)| . (3)
By assumption, 1 + Gp (s) = 0 has no zero poles in the
right-half plane. If R(w) < 1 for all w, according to the
small gain theory, the closed-loop system in Fig. 2 without
the deadband controller is stable for T > 0.
Let So  = Ms and |So (jws )| = 1 shown in Fig. 3.
Since Kq  = 1, a condition to ensure R(w) < 1 is given
by
 1  1
 
|Kq (jws )| =  < . (4)
1 + jws q Ms
This characterizes a criterion on the stability for the de-
sign of Kq (s) since ws and Ms can be found from So (s) as
Gp (s) is given.
Fig. 3 The frequency characteristics of So (s) and Kq (s).
3.2 Design of deadband relay
According to [14], two-valued relay cannot be applied to
high-performance control systems because it often causes
limit cycle problems. A deadband relay is a relay hav-
ing three different output values including zero. Fig. 4 (a)
shows the input-output relation of this type relay where d
denotes the relay output amplitude, 2h represents the dead-
band width, x is the input, and z is the output. It can be seen
that the output of the deadband relay is zero when the input
falls within the range of the deadband. Hence, the deadband
relay will be out of action and then the limit cycle oscilla-
tions can be avoided.
The describing function of the deadband relay can be de-
52 X. Tang et al. / J Control Theory Appl 2012 10 (1) 5055

rived as  reasonable selection may be 510% of the maximum value

4d h of the absolute steady-state error of the closed-loop control
N (X) = 1 ( )2 , (5) system using the repetitive control part alone. This maxi-
X X
where N (X) is the describing function of the deadband re- mum value can easily be estimated via a numerical investi-
lay and X is the sinusoidal input amplitude of the deadband gation because the repetitive control part has already been
relay. designed.
In the analysis of describing nonlinear system function, The task of the lead compensator Gl (s) is to move
the inverse of the describing function is usually employed. the locus of Gl (s)Gp (s)/(1 + Grc (s)Gp (s)) away from
The inverse of the above describing function is denoted by the (1/N (X)) locus, equivalently away from the
1 X ([1/N (X)]min , j0). In the other words, the task of the lead
=  . (6) compensator is to ensure small enough. This is an ordinary
N (X) 4d 1 ( h )2 frequency-domain design problem.
X
The inverse of the deadband relay describing function is If the Gp (s)/(1 + Grc (s)Gp (s)) locus is already away
not monotonous function of X. It has a minimum value at from the (1/N (X)) locus to a satisfactory degree, it is
some point in the admissible set of X: {X| X>h}. This not necessary to include the lead compensator Gl (s). This
minimum point can be calculated as will result in a simplied controller.

X = 3h. (7)
The minimum value of (1/N (X)) is
 
1 3h
= . (8)
N (X) min 4 2d
The minimum value of the inverse of the describing func-
tion is proportional to the ratio of the deadband band to the
relay output amplitude.
The characteristic equation of closed-loop control system
shown in Fig. 2 is
1 + [N (X)Gl (s) + Grc (s)]Gp (s) = 0,
or
Gl (s)Gp (s) 1
= . (9)
1 + Grc (s)Gp (s) N (X)
Because the previously designed repetitive control part
guarantees the stability of the current control loop only
with the repetitive control part, 1 + Grc (s)Gp (s) only
includes zeros in the left-half s plane. Hence, the min-
imum phase property of the transfer function Grc (s)
and Gp (s) results in the minimum phase property of
Gl (s)Gp (s)/(1 + Grc (s)Gp (s)). Therefore, if the Nyquist
plot of Gl (s)Gp (s)/(1 + Grc (s)Gp (s)) does not cross the Fig. 4 Characteristics of the deadband relay.
(1/N (X)) locus as shown in Fig. 4 (b), the closed-loop
control system is stable and there is no limit cycle. 4 Application to active lter
The [1/N (X)]min depends on the ratio of the dead- Power quality is an increasingly important problem that
band width to the relay output amplitude. The relay output affects users of the power grid and has signicant economic
amplitude d is often selected to be the maximum admissi- consequences. According to [6], active power lters as so-
ble control input. Hence, the distance of (1/N (X)) locus lutions to power quality problems have become more and
from the imaginary axis relies only on the deadband width. more important nowadays
Larger deadband width results in more stable robust control A schematic diagram for a single-phase shunt active l-
loop but produces less compensation effect. If the deadband ter is shown in Fig. 5, where L is the lter inductance, C
half-width h is greater than the maximum value of the ab- is the capacitance, R sums up the parasitic resistance of all
solute tracking error, the relay will never take effect. Hence, the converter elements, iF (t) is the lter inductor current,
the selection of h must satisfy is (t) is the supply current, iL (t) is the load current, uc (t) is
< h < |e(t)|max , (10) the DC bus voltage, and us (t) is the supply voltage, respec-
where |e(t)|max is the maximum value of the absolute track- tively.
ing error and is the critical magnitude of the deadband The aim of a shunt active lter is to generate and inject a
half-width h which let Gl (s)Gp (s)/(1 + Grc (s)Gp (s)) lo- suitable current iF (t) into the power system so as to cancel
cus begin to intersect with the (1/N (X)) locus, i.e., the the harmonic content of the distorted load and to obtain a
closed-loop control system is critical stable. supply current in phase with the supply voltage. The idea
Generally, the deadband half-width h is selected to be as can be also described by
small as possible in order to obtain fast dynamic response. A IF iF (t) = iLh + iLfq , THEN is (t) = iL iF = iLfp ,
 X. Tang et al. / J Control Theory Appl 2012 10 (1) 5055
where iLfp iLfq and iLh are the real content, reactive content
and harmonic content of load current, respectively.
The nonlinear load is full-wave diode rectier with C =
1500 F in parallel with R = 50 . The nominal AC mains
root-mean-square (RMS) voltage is 110 V and its nominal
frequency is 50 Hz.
The main circuit of the shunt active lter was built by a
full-bridge boost converter with IGBT (insulated gate bipo-
lar transistor) switches and a DC capacitor C = 470 F.
Although the bang-bang control will cause the variable to
switch frequency, the settling time is short. Therefore, the
low-pass lter eliminating the switching frequency can be
designed only considering the steady-state model. As the
frequency of the triangle waveform used as the carrier sig-
nal is 20 kHz, the parameter of the low-pass lter is set as
L = 1 mH.
Fig. 5 Single-phase shunt active lter.
4.1 Modeling
According to [15], the state-space averaging model of the
active lter in Fig. 5 describing the voltage and current dy-
namics are given by

LiF (t) + RiF (t) = (2d(t) 1)uc (t) us (t),
(11)
C uC (t) = iF (t),
where d(t) is the duty ratio.
4.2 Control structure
For proper operation of the inverter, it is necessary to
maintain a DC bus voltage uc (t) greater than the peak of
the supply voltage us (t). Thus, the shunt active lter need
be decomposed into a voltage control loop and a current
control loop. The control block diagram is shown in Fig.
6, where is a constant, ur (t) is the required DC voltage,
ec (t) is the current tracking error, and ir (t) is the required
supply current.
Fig. 6 Block diagram of the current and voltage control loops.
53
From the energy-balancing point of view, the required
supply current ir (t), which is generated by the outer volt-
age loop controller will be equal to the real content iLfp of
load current, when the DC voltage uc (t) settles down and if
the current loop of active lter has zero steady-state [15] .
4.3 Controller design
From (11), if the DC bus voltage is assumed to be well
regulated at UDC , the current dynamics can be approxi-
mated as
LiF (t) + RiF (t) = 2UDC d(t) uc (t) us (t).
A block diagram representation of the current loop control
is shown in Fig. 7.
Fig. 7 Current control loop.
The required DC bus voltage is chosen to be 200 V. The
transfer function, Gp (s), in Fig. 2 can be calculated as
400
Gp (s) = .
0.036 + 0.001s
As the nominal frequency fu is 50 Hz, the input signal pe-
riod of the current control loop is T = 20 ms. As stated in
Section 3, for stabilizing the system, the parameter q in the
low pass lter Kq (s) is evaluated as
q = 0.06.
Since the maximum input voltage of triangle pulse modu-
lator is 5 V, the output amplitude of the deadband relay is
determined as 5 V. The deaband half-width is selected to be
0.3, which is about 10% the maximum value of the absolute
current tracking error obtained from a numerical investiga-
tion about the repetitive control part working alone. There-
fore, two parameters of the deadband relay are determined
as
d = 5, h = 0.3.
By means of the CONTROL SYSTEM Toolbox, the
Nyquist plot of Gp (s)/(1 + Grc (s)Gp (s)) can be con-
veniently obtained and does not intersect with the
(1/N (X)) locus. As a result, there is no need to include
an additional lead compensator for this system, i.e.,
Gl (s) = 1.
The setting of was to make sure that the multiplier output
would not be easily saturated and was set to 0.01 such that
the peak value of us (t)was about 1.56 V.
For the voltage control loop, the PI controller Gcu (s) =
KP1 + KI1 /s is easily designed and the parameters are se-
lected as KP1 = 0.0295 and KI1 = 0.4639.
5 Experimental results
To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, the
active lter shown in Fig. 5 with different controllers was
tested. Fig. 8 shows the dynamic performance of active l-
ter with a basic repetitive controller. Note that the settling
time took about 10 periods. Fig. 9 shows the dynamic per-
formance of active lter with the proposed method. The set-
54 X. Tang et al. / J Control Theory Appl 2012 10 (1) 5055

tling time only took about 3 periods. Fig. 11 shows steady-state performance of active lter
with the traditional PI controller. The high order harmon-
ics had a certain extent been reduced and the current THD
was 9.7%. The power factor of the overall system was 0.91.
Fig. 12 shows steady-state performance of active lter with
the proposed method. There was clearly a signicant im-
provement in the power factor and the current THD. The
high order harmonics had clearly been reduced and the cur-
rent THD was 5.6%. The power factor of the overall system
was 0.98.

Fig. 8 The dynamic performance of active lter with a basic repet-

itive controller.

Fig. 9 The dynamic performance of active lter with the proposed

method.
Fig. 10 shows the load current waveform and the load cur-
rent spectrum. The RMS of load current was 1.97 A. There Fig. 11 Steady-state performance of active lter with the tradi-
were clearly a lot of 3rd, 5th, 9th, etc. high-order harmonics tional PI controller.
and the current total harmonic distortion (THD) was 61.8%.
The power factor of the circuit was 0.77.

Fig. 12 Steady-state performance of active lter with the proposed

Fig. 10 Nonlinear load. method.
 X. Tang et al. / J Control Theory Appl 2012 10 (1) 5055
6 Conclusions
In this paper, a nonlinear repetitive controller was pro-
posed to obtain better dynamic response than a basic repet-
itive controller. The aforementioned results veried the va-
lidity of the proposed method by applying it to current con-
trol of active lter. Comparison to the adaptive repetitive
method, the proposed method is simpler and faster because
it does not need any parameter identication. In addition,
the repetitive control combined with a PI has to achieve
a trade-off between the stability and the dynamic perfor-
mance, the proposed method is faster.
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Xin TANG was born in Hunan, China, in 1975.
He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Cen-
tral South University, Changsha, in 2001 and 2005,
respectively. His research interests include elec-
tric power savings and active power lters. E-mail:
tangxin csu@163.com.
An LUO was born in Hunan, China, in 1957. He
received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Hunan
University, in 1982 and 1986, respectively, and
Ph.D. degree from Zhejiang University, Zhejiang,
China, in 1993. He was with the Central South
University, as a professor between 1996 and 2002.
Starting in 2003, he became a professor at Hunan
University. He is engaged in research on power
conversion system, harmonics suppression and re-
active power compensation, and intelligent control theory and application.
He has published over 100 journal and conference articles. He is a recipi-
ent of the 2006 National Scientic and Technological Awards of China, the
2005 Scientic and Technological Awards from the National Mechanical
Industry Association of China, and the 2007 Scientic and Technological
Awards from the Hunan Province of China. He currently serves as the As-
sociate Board Chairperson of Hunan Society of Electrical Engineering. He
also serves as the Chief of Hunan Electric Science and Application Labo-
ratory. E-mail: an luo@hnu.edu.cn.
Chunming TU was born in Jiangxi, China, in
1976. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees
from Central South University, Changsha, in 2001
and 2004, respectively. His research interests in-
clude electric power savings and active power l-
ters. E-mail: chunming tu@263.com.
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