Abstract: When disturbance or influence of uncertainty can be measured, its influence on the system
performance could be largely attenuated by the use of a feedforward strategy. However, in many
practical applications, it is difficult to directly measure disturbance such as external load so this
feedforward strategy cannot be directly realised. Disturbance observation and estimation techniques
provide an alternative approach to realise feedforward strategies in these applications. This talk
outlines the development of the disturbance observer-based control techniques (DOBC) particularly
for nonlinear systems using a state space representation. Compensation design for disturbance
entering systems in the same or different channels of control inputs (so called matched or
unmatched disturbance) is discussed. Recent development of DOBC including robust control design
and input-output realization is also presented.


Biography: Dr. Wen-Hua Chen holds Professor in Autonomous Vehicles in the Department of Aeronautical and
Automotive Engineering at Loughborough University, UK. Prof. Chen has a considerable experience
in control, signal processing and artificial intelligence and their applications in aerospace, automotive
and agriculture systems. He has made significant contributions in developing nonlinear disturbance
observer design techniques, disturbance observer-based control and model predictive control. His
unmanned vehicles related research is widely supported by the UK government and industry. He is a
Chartered Engineer, and a Fellow of IEEE, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and the
Institution of Engineering and Technology, UK. Recently Prof. Chen was awarded the prestigious
EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Science Research Council) Established Career Fellowship by the
UK government.