Nested Plant/Controller Codesign Using G-Optimal Design and Continuous Time Adaptation Laws: Theoretical Framework and Application to an Airborne Wind Energy System

This paper presents a nested codesign (combined plant and controller design) formulation that uses optimal design of experiments (DoE) techniques at the upper level to globally explore the plant design space, with continuous-time control parameter adaptation laws used at the lower level. The global design space exploration made possible through optimal DoE techniques makes the proposed methodology appealing for complex, nonconvex optimization problems for which legacy approaches are not effective. Furthermore, the use of continuous-time adaptation laws for control parameter optimization allows for the extension of the proposed optimization framework to the experimental realm, where control parameters can be optimized during experiments. At each full iteration, optimal DoE are used to generate a batch of plant designs within a prescribed design space. Each plant design is tested in either a simulation or experiment, during which an adaptation law is used for control parameter optimization. Two techniques are proposed for control parameter optimization at each iteration: extremum seeking (ES) and continuous-time DoE. The design space is reduced at the end of each full iteration, based on a response surface characterization and quality of fit estimate. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated for an airborne wind energy (AWE) system, where the plant parameters are the center of mass location and stabilizer area, and the control parameter is the trim pitch angle.