Structure-Inspired Disturbance Observer Design and Disturbance Observer-Based Control/estimation

This dissertation consists of two topics: (1) structure-inspired disturbance observer design and (2) disturbance observer-based control/estimation. The disturbance is defined as the discrepancy between a model and the system the model represents. A disturbance observer is an algorithm that generates an estimate of the disturbance. The first topic illustrates a disturbance observer that provides a big class of nonlinear systems with a large basin of attraction, even ensuring global convergence. Such robustness is achieved by leveraging particular system nonlinearities in the observer design. The second topic discusses the usage of disturbance estimates to counteract or capture the effects of disturbances to recover the nominal controller/estimator performance. The main research results are theorems concerning stability analysis of the disturbance observer and the disturbance observer-based systems, whose practical aspects are supported by three application examples---a fixed-wing aircraft, an underwater vehicle, and a Furuta pendulum.