Disturbance Rejection for Input-Delay System Using Observer-Predictor-Based Output Feedback Control

This article addresses the control problem of an open-loop unstable linear time-invariant system with an input delay and an unknown disturbance. An observer-predictor-based control method is presented for such a system in which only output information is available. First, the system state is reconstructed and the disturbance is estimated using the equivalent-input-disturbance approach. Next, the future information on the state and the disturbance is predicted to reduce the effect of the input delay. Then, a new predictive control scheme is developed. The closed-loop system is simplified into two subsystems for analysis. Stability conditions are derived for each subsystem separately. Finally, a comparison with previous approaches through simulations shows the superiority of the presented method over others for disturbance rejection.