The paper introduces an augmented adaptive unscented Kalman filter (KF). The proposed novel technique is suitable to simultaneously estimate both the diagonal process noise covariance matrix and the unknown inputs, thus combining previously reported KF estimators for unknown inputs (dual or joint KF) and for covariance matrices (adaptive KF). A selective scaling method is also introduced to improve the convergence property of the suggested KF. The development of the novel KF is also motivated by a specific estimation problem related to crane systems. Cranes represent a special class of weight handling equipment as they are underactuated and described by nonlinear dynamics such that the load present oscillatory behavior. In addition to the increasing need for their automation in various industrial fields, these features also make them a benchmark system in control engineering with numerous control laws reported in the literature for sway elimination and trajectory tracking. A common issue to realize most of the advanced control laws on real, eventually industrial size cranes is the necessity to know the sway angle and frictions on the configuration variables. It is shown in simulation and also with real experiments on a reduced size overhead crane system that the suggested KF is suitable to estimate both the sway angles and the frictions.

Induction motors are typical rotating machines that are widely used in various industrial processes. The condition of induction motors has to be monitored to avoid serious losses, which can be caused by various reasons. Over the last decades, although many studies have been performed on the condition monitoring (CM), there is still an increasing need for cost-effective and reliable CM techniques for induction motor. This paper presents an adaptive Kalman filter (AKF)-based CM technique for an induction motor driving a scrubber fan. In this work, AKFs are used to extract useful information about the induction motor’s condition based on measured vibration signals. The main novelty of the proposed method is the use of multiple AKFs for the detection of outliers and anomalies. The output of the AKFs plays as the basis of severity assessment on the vibration signals. A set of AKFs are employed to deal with various anomaly conditions caused by different severity levels of vibration as the IM is deteriorated. Moreover, the effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through experiments involving a real scrubber fan driven by an induction motor.

Most of the advanced nonlinear control strategies reported in the literature for underactuated mechanisms, such as overhead cranes, require the knowledge of all state variables. For cranes, the state vector includes variables related to the load sway and its velocity. The flatness property of crane-like systems can be exploited to solve both motion planning and tracking problems, so that the load (whose coordinates are included in the set of the flat outputs) exponentially follows a rapid reference trajectory. However, unmodeled friction phenomena and limitations on the direct measurement of sway-related state variables usually impede the practical implementation of flatness-based control laws. This paper proposes the use of an adaptive unscented Kalman filter to estimate friction forces and unmeasured state variables. The convergence of the filter is improved using a novel technique, called condition-based selective scaling. The performance of the suggested scheme is verified through a set of computer simulations on a 2D overhead crane system.

Wind energy is one of the fastest growing energy sources in the world. It is expected that by the end of 2022 the installed capacity will exceed 250 GW thanks to the supply of large scale wind turbines in Europe. However, there are still challenging problems with wind turbines. In particular, off-shore and large-scale wind turbines are required to tackle the issue of maintainability and availability because they are installed in harsh off-shore environments, which may also prevent engineers from accessing the site for immediate repair works. Fault-tolerant control techniques have been widely exploited to overcome this issue. This paper proposes a novel fault-tolerant control strategy for wind turbines. The proposed strategy has a hierarchical structure, consisting of a pitch controller and a wind turbine controller, with parameter estimations using the adaptive fading Kalman filter technique. The pitch controller compensates any fault with a pitching actuator, while the wind turbine controller computes the optimal reference command for pitching behavior so that the effect of the fault with a pitch actuator can be minimized. The performance of the proposed approach is demonstrated through a set of simulations with a wind turbine benchmark model.