In this article, we present a high-order sliding mode controller of a DC motor drive connected to a multi-cellular converter. More specifically, we design a second-order (super-twisting) control algorithm for the speed regulation of a DC motor. For this, a switching control for the multi-cellular converter is derived in order to supply the correct reference value for the speed regulation. A practical implementation of the controller is realised using a laboratory set-up. The performance and the validity of the controller are shown experimentally.

Summary: The article proposes a nonlinear optimal control method for the model of the wheeled inverted pendulum (WIP). This is a difficult control and robotics problem due to the system’s strong nonlinearities and due to its underactuation. First, the dynamic model of the WIP undergoes approximate linearization around a temporary operating point which is recomputed at each time step of the control method. The linearization procedure makes use of Taylor series expansion and of the computation of the associated Jacobian matrices. For the linearized model of the wheeled pendulum, an optimal (H-infinity) feedback controller is developed. The controller’s gain is computed through the repetitive solution of an algebraic Riccati equation at each iteration of the control algorithm. The global asymptotic stability properties of the control method are proven through Lyapunov analysis. Finally, by using the H-infinity Kalman Filter as a robust state estimator, the implementation of a state estimation-based control scheme becomes also possible.

Visible light communication systems are rapidly growing research areas with wide applications ranging from illumination and data communication. To achieve high data rates in such systems, a number of techniques have been employed such as equalization of transmission signals, deployment of complex data modulation and the use of multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems. However, security in wireless telecommunication systems is a common concern. This paper proposes a secure MIMO-VLC system that relies on the position of the user by incorporating a new modified version of the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) technique for encrypting the transmitted data in the Media Access Control (MAC) layer. The performance of the positioning method is evaluated showing a positioning accuracy of less than 5cm for a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 15 dB. Furthermore, the ability of the proposed system to control the size of the encrypted cell, depending on the application environment, is demonstrated.