A Framework for Discrete-Time H2 Preview Control

The purpose of this paper is to provide a set of synthesis and design tools for a wide class of H2 preview control systems. A generic preview design problem, which features both previewable and nonpreviewable disturbances, is embedded in a standard generalized regulator framework. Preview regulation is accomplished by a two-degrees-of-freedom output-feedback controller. A number of theoretical issues are studied, including the efficient solution of the standard H2 full-information Riccati equation and the efficient evaluation of the full-information preview gain matrices. The full-information problem is then extended to include the efficient implementation of the output-feedback controller. The synthesis of feedforward controllers with preview is analyzed as a special case—this problem is of interest to designers who wish to introduce preview as a separate part of a system design. The way in which preview reduces the H2-norm of the closed-loop system is analyzed in detail. Closed-loop norm reduction formulas provide a systematic way of establishing how much preview is required to solve a particular problem, and determine when extending the preview horizon will not produce worthwhile benefits. The paper concludes with a summary of the main features of preview control, as well as some controller design insights. New application examples are introduced by reference.