Input-constrained chaos synchronization of horizontal platform systems via a model predictive controller

Abstract

Horizontal platform systems are mechanical systems that can exhibit both periodic and chaotic behaviour. Various control techniques have been developed to solve their chaos synchronization. However, the avoidance of control saturation is rarely considered in existing control techniques. In this paper, a model predictive controller is developed to address the input-constrained chaos synchronization of horizontal platform systems. To meet the requirements of computational efficiency, the highly efficient symplectic pseudospectral method is taken as the core solver of the model predictive controller. Two methods to impose the terminal boundary condition are considered. And two indices, i.e., the approximate synchronization time and the synchronization-consumed energy, are proposed to evaluate the synchronization performance. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the developed model predictive controller can achieve faster synchronization while owns better robustness under various kinds of external disturbances when compared to several feedback controllers.