International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems (2011) 9(3):1-7 DOI

http://www.springer.com/12555

Stabilization of Saturated Discrete-Time Fuzzy Systems

Abdellah Benzaouia, Said Gounane, Fernando Tadeo, and Ahmed El Hajjaji Abstract: This paper presents sufficient conditions for the stabilization of discrete-time fuzzy systems, subject to actuator saturations, by using state feedback control laws. Two different methods are presented and compared. The obtained results are formulated in terms of LMIs. A real plant model illustrates the proposed techniques. Keywords: Discrete-time systems, LMI, saturated control, stabilization, T-S fuzzy systems.

1. INTRODUCTION It is known that the qualitative knowledge of a system can be represented by a nonlinear model. This idea has allowed the emergence of a new design approach in the fuzzy control field. The nonlinear system can be represented by a Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model [2022]. The control design is then carried out using known or recently developed methods from control theory [10,14,17,18,24]. T-S fuzzy models have proved to be very good representations for a certain class of nonlinear dynamic systems. The nonlinear system is represented by a set of linear models interpolated by membership functions. Then a model-based fuzzy controller can be developed to stabilize the T-S fuzzy model, by solving a set of LMIs [11,13,16]. A main problem, which is always inherent to all dynamical systems, is the presence of actuator saturations. Even for linear systems this problem has been an active area of research for many years. Two main approaches have been developed in the literature: The first is the so-called positive invariance approach, which is based on the design of controllers that work inside a region of linear behavior where saturations do not occur (see [1,2,7] and the references therein). This approach has been extended to systems modelled by T-S systems [4,12]. The second approach, allows saturations to take effect, while guaranteeing asymptotic stability (see [5,15] and the references therein). This method has been extended to T-S continuous-time systems in [9]. The main challenge in these two approaches is to obtain
__________ Manuscript received January 25, 2008; revised July 30, 2010 and January 18, 2011; accepted January 31, 2011. Recommended by Editor Young-Hoon Joo. Abdellah Benzaouia and Said Gounane are with LAEPTEACPI URAC 28, University Cadi Ayyad, Faculty of Science Semlalia, BP 2390, Marrakech, Morocco (e-mails: benzaouia@ ucam.ac.ma, gounane.said@gmail.com). Fernando Tadeo is with Universidad de Valladolid, Depart. de Ingenieria de Sistemas y Automatica, 47005 Valladolid, Spain (email: fernando@autom.uva.es). Ahmed El Hajjaji is with University of Picardie Jules Vernes (UPJV), 7 Rue de Moulin Neuf 8000 Amiens, France (e-mail: ahmed.hajjaji@u-picardie.fr). ICROS, KIEE and Springer 2011

a large enough domain of initial states that ensures asymptotic stability of the system despite the presence of saturations [3]. The objective of this paper is to extend the results of [9] to discrete-time T-S systems subject to actuator saturations. Thus, two directions are explored, based on two different methods, one direct and one indirect, leading to two different sets of LMIs. It is then shown, by application to a real plant model, that the indirect method, which uses the idea in [23] is less restrictive than the direct one, that uses [9]. It is the first time that this method is applied to T-S fuzzy systems. This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 deals with some preliminary results, while the third Section presents the problem presentation. The main results of this paper are given in Section 4 together with application to a real plant model. 2. PRELIMINARIES This section presents some preliminary results on which our work is based. Define the following subsets of n :
( P, ) = {x n | xT Px , > 0},

(1) (2)

L( F ) = {x || f j x | 1, j [1, m]}

with P a positive definite matrix and F mn and fj stands for the jth row of matrix F. (P, ) is an ellipsoid set, while L(F) is a polyhedral set. The set (P, ), which is an ellipsoid, will be used as a level set of the Lyapunov function V(x(k))=xT(k)Px(k), while the polyhedral set L(F) is the set where the saturations do not occur. Lemma 1 [15]: Let F, H mn be given matrices, for x n , if x L( H ) then
sat ( Fx) = co{Ei Fx + Ei Hx : i [1, 2m ]}

with Ei V

where

V = {M mm /M = diag{ 1 ,..., j ,... m }}

Abdellah Benzaouia, Said Gounane, Fernando Tadeo, and Ahmed El Hajjaji

with j =1 or 0, Ei =IEi and co stands for the convex hull function. The main idea of [15] based on Lemma 1, is to build a third set with matrix H as L(H). This polyhedral set will be the set where saturations of the control are allowed without destabilizing the system. It is generally shown that the set L(H) is larger than the set L(F) [15]. Lemma 2 [9]: Suppose that matrices Di mn i =1, 2,...,r and a positive semi-definite matrix P mm are given: if

structure [22], we consider the following fuzzy control law for the fuzzy system (3): Rule ii: IF 1(k) is Mi1 q(k) is Miq THEN u(k)=Fix(k). The overall state feedback fuzzy control law can then be represented as:

u (k ) = i (k ) Fi x(k ).
i =1

(5)

i = 1 0 i 1,
i =1

then
r i =1

The objective of this work is to develop sufficient conditions of asymptotic stability of the T-S fuzzy system in closed-loop in presence of saturated control. These conditions will enable one to obtain a large set of initial values where the saturations of the control are allowed. 4. MAIN RESULTS This section presents the main results that consists of two sufficient conditions of asymptotic stability of the TS system in closed-loop, under the form of two sets of LMIs. 4.1. Direct method In this subsection, a direct method is used to derive sufficient conditions of asymptotic stability based on a common quadratic Lyapunv function candidate. Theorem 1: For a given fuzzy system (3), suppose that the local state feedback control matrices Fj, j =1,...,r, are given. The ellipsoid (P, ) is a contractively invariant set of the closed-loop system under the fuzzy control law (5) if there exist matrices Hj mn , j [1,r] such that
T Aijs PAijs P < 0 i, j [1, r ], s [1, 2m ]

i DiT P i Di i DiT PDi .

i =1 i =1

Lemma 3 [19]: Let x n , H mn P=PT nn such that rank(H) =r < n. The following statements are equivalent: i ) xT Px < 0,x 0, Hx = 0
ii ) X nm : P + XH + H T X T < 0.

3. PROBLEM STATEMENT This section presents the problem to be solved. Consider the fuzzy system described by the following r rules: Rule i: IF 1(k) is Mi1, , q(k) is Miq THEN x(k + 1) = Ai x(k ) + Bi sat (u (k )), where Mij is the fuzzy set and (k)=[1(k),...,q(k)] are the premise variables. By using the common used center-average defuzzifier, product interference and singleton fuzzifier, the T-S fuzzy systems can be inferred as
x(k + 1) = A( (k )) x(k ) + B( (k )) sat (u (k )),
T

(6) (7)

( P, ) L( H j ),
j =1

where

(3)

Aijs = Ai + Bi [ Es F j + Es H j ].
Proof: For any
x j =1 L( H j ), since
r

where
A( (k )) = i (k ) Ai , B( (k )) = i (k ) Bi ,
i =1 i =1 r r

i =1 i = 1

and 0 i 1 we have that:

r x L j H j . j =1

i ( k ) =

i ( (k ))

r ( (k )) i =1 i

, i ( (k )) = M ij ( j (k )),
j =1

Then by Lemma 1,
r sat j (k ) F j x(k ) j =1

and Mij(j (k)) is the grade of membership of Mij. The saturation function is defined as follows:
1, if ui (k ) > 1 sat (ui (k )) = u (k ), if 1 ui (k ) 1 1 if u (k ) < 1. i

(4)

= s (k ) Es j (k ) F j + Es j (k ) H j x(k ),
s =1 j =1 j =1

2m

Based on the Parallel Distribution Control (PDC)

so, one can have

Stabilization of Saturated Discrete-Time Fuzzy Systems

2m

x(k + 1) = ijs (k ) Aijs x(k )

i =1 j =1 s =1

with Aijs = Ai + Bi [ Es F j + Es H j ], and ijs (k ) = i (k )

j (k ) s (k ).

In order to synthesize the controller, we give the following result: Corollary 1: For a given fuzzy system (3), if there exist a symmetric positive definite matrix Q nn and matrices Yj mn, Zj mn, j [1, r] and X nn such that
XT + X Q * Ai + Bi ( EsY j + Es Z j ) Q
T

Then, (3) becomes

x(k + 1) = A( (k )) x(k ),

where
A( (k )) = ijs (k ) Aijs .
i =1 j =1 s =1 r r 2m

>0

(9)

i, j [1, r ], s [1, 2m ]

(8)

and
1 z jl 0 T X + X Q * j [1, r ], l [1, m],

Select the Lyapunov function candidate

V ( x(k )) = xT (k ) Px (k ).

(10)

Computing its rate of increase gives

T V ( x(k )) = xT (k ) A( (k )) PA( (k )) P x(k ) r r 2m T P = xT (k ) ijs (k ) Aijs i =1 j =1 s =1 r r 2m ijs (k ) Aijs P x(k ) i =1 j =1 s =1 r r 2m T P = xT (k ) i (k ) j (k ) s (k ) Aijs = = = i j s 1 1 1 r r 2m i (k ) j (k ) s (k ) Aijs P x(k ) j =1 s =1 i =1

where * denotes the transpose of the off-diagonal element, then the ellipsoid (Q1, ) is a contractively invariant set of the closed-loop system (3), with
Fi = Yi X 1 , H i = Z i X 1 and P = Q 1.

Proof: Assume that conditions (9)-(10) hold. Then the inequality (6) in Theorem 1 is equivalent to:
T X T Aijs PAijs X X T PX < 0,

i, j [1, r ], s [1, 2m ], matrix X nn. Let Q = P1 then we have

i, j [1, r ], s [1, 2m ].

and for all nonsingular

T 1 X T Aijs Q Aijs X X T Q 1 X < 0,

for all
x L( H j ).
j =1 r

By Schur complement, it is equivalent to:

X T Q 1 X Aijs X
T X T Aijs > 0, Q

By applying Lemma 2: V ( x(k ))

r r 2m T x (k ) ijs (k ) Aijs PAijs P x(k ). i =1 j =1 s =1
T

(11)

i, j [1, r ], s [1, 2m ].

Since (XQ)TQ1(XQ) > 0, it follows that X TQ1X XT + X Q. Then V(x(k)) < 0 if

XT + X Q *
T + + XT A B ( E F E H ) i i s j s j > 0, (12) Q

This inequality is equivalent to V ( x(k ))

r r 2m T xT (k ) ijs (k ) Aijs PAijs P i =1 j =1 s =1

x(k ). )

i, j [1, r ], s [1, 2m ].

It is easy to see that V ( x(k )) < 0 if

T Aijs PAijs P < 0,i, j [1, r ], s [1, 2m ]

To obtain an LMI, let Yj =Fj X and Zj =Hj X. Then condition (12) will be equivalent to
XT + X Q *
Ai X + Bi ( EsY j + Es Z j ) Q T

and
( P, ) L( H j ).
j =1 r

> 0,

i, j [1, r ], s [1, 2m ].

Consider now the condition (7) in Theorem 1, which is

Abdellah Benzaouia, Said Gounane, Fernando Tadeo, and Ahmed El Hajjaji

equivalent to [8]:
h jl P 1hT jl , j [1, r ], l [1, m],
1

where hjl is the lth row of Hj. This inequality is equivalent to

1 h jl XX 1 P 1 X T X T hT jl ,

T P 0 x(k ) T x (k ) x (k + 1) 0 P x(k + 1) < 0 ( ) x(k ) I ] [ A( (k )) = 0. x(k + 1)

for any non singular matrix X nn. By Schur complement, one obtains equivalently
1 *

By virtue of Lemma 3, () is also equivalent to: there exists a matrix X such that:
P 0 T T T 0 P + X [ A ( (k )) I ] + [ A( (k )) I ] X < 0.

h jl X 0. X T PX

Let X=

As Q=P1, then one can have

1

N 1 N 2

then V ( x(k )) < 0 if:

0. X T Q 1 X h jl X 0, X T + X Q h jl X

T N P 0 1 [ A( (k )) I ] + A ( (k )) [ N T N T ] < 0. + 1 2 0 P N 2 I

By using (8) one can get

Thus, if
1 *

i ( k ) j ( k ) s ( k )
i =1 j =1 s =1 T T P + N1 Aijs + Aijs N1 T N2 Aijs N1 T NT N1 + Aijs 2 T P N2 N2

2m

then, the inequality (7) of Theorem 1 is satisfied, hence the result is obtained. Note that condition (12) implies X T + X > 0, that is, X is non singular. 4.2. Indirect method In this subsection, an indirect method is used to derive sufficient conditions of asymptotic stability by using a common quadratic Lyapunov function candidate. Theorem 2: For a given fuzzy system (3), suppose that the local state feedback control matrices Fj, j =1,...,r, are given. The ellipsoid (P, ) is a contractively invariant set of the closed-loop system under the fuzzy control law (5) if there exist matrices Hj mn, j [1,r], N1 and N2 nn such that
N1 Aijs T T + Aijs N1 P T T Aijs N2 N1

< 0.

A sufficient condition to have V ( x(k )) < 0 is

P + T T N1 Aijs + Aijs N1 * T NT N Aijs 2 1 T P N2 N2

< 0.

In order to synthesize the controller, we give the following result: Corollary 2: For a given fuzzy system (3) and a given , if there exist a symmetric positive definite matrix Q nn and matrices Yj, Zj mn, j [1,r] and X nn such that
ijs

P N1 N 2

<0

(13)

+ T ijs Q
*

i, j [1, r ], s [1, 2m ]

i, j [1, r ], s [1, 2 ]

2Q X X T m

X + T ijs

<0

(15)

and

and
r

( P, ) L( H j ),
j =1

(14)

where Aijs = Ai + Bi [ Es F j + Es H j ]. Proof: Let V ( x(k )) = x (k ) Px(k ). Then

V ( x(k )) = x (k + 1) Px(k + 1) x (k ) Px (k )
T T T

1 *

( Z j )l 0 j [1, r ], l [1, m], Q

(16)

where ijs = Ai X + Bi [ EsY j + Es Z j ], then the ellipsoid

(Q1, ) is a contractively invariant set of the closedloop system (3), with

Fi = Yi X 1 , H i = Z i X 1 and P = X T QX 1 .

V ( x(k )) < 0 is equivalent to xT (k + 1) Px(k + 1) xT (k ) Px(k ) < 0 x(k + 1) = A( (k )) x(k ),

which is also equivalent to

Proof: In (13) let Ni = X iT i = 1, 2. Pre and post -multiplying inequality (13) by T T diag ( X1 , X2 ) and diag ( X1 , X 2 ), respectively one

Stabilization of Saturated Discrete-Time Fuzzy Systems

can get equivalently:

ijs * T PX X X T X2 2 2 2 T AT X X1 2 ijs

Rule 2: If
< 0,

(k ) = x2 (k ) +

i, j [1, r ] s [1, 2m ],
T T T where ijs = Aijs X 1 + X 1 Aijs X1 PX1 .

v.t .x1 (k ) 2L

is about or , then
x(k + 1) = A2 x(k ) + B2 u (k ),
T X1 PX 1.

Let X 2 = X1 and Q =
ijs T Aijs X1 X1

Then,
< 0,

where
1 v.t /L 0 0 v.t /l A1 = v.t /L 1 0 , B1 = 0 , v 2 .t 2 / 2 L v.t 1 0 1 v.t /L 0 0 v.t /l A2 = v.t /L 1 0 , B2 = 0 d .v 2 .t 2 / 2 L d .v.t 1 0

i, j [1, r ] s [1, 2 ].

2 T Q X1 X1 m

T AT X1 + X 1 ijs

Let X1=X then (15) is obtained. Note that (15) implies that matrix X is non singular. Further, one can show that the inequality (14) is equivalent to [8]: 1 where h is the l th row of H . h jl P 1hT jl jl j 1. That is, h jl XX 1 P 1 X T X T hT jl By Schur complement, one gets
1 *
1 *

with x=[x1 x2 x3]T, l =2.8m, L=5.5m, v =1m/s, t =2s, d = 0.01/. The results X, Yi, Zi, Q of Corollary 1, obtained with the LMI toolbox of Matlab, lead to:
F1 = F2 = [ 2.4052 1.3751 0.1456] ,
4.5391 4.0483 0.4266 P= 4.0483 6.2350 0.6541 . 0.4266 0.6541 0.1545

h jl X 0. T X PX
z jl 0. Q

H1 = H 2 = [1.2609 0.6759 0.0711] ,

Since Q = XTPX and Zj=Hj X then

The results X, Yi, Zi, Q of Corollary 2, obtained with the LMI toolbox of Matlab, lead to:
F1 = F2 = [ 4.5087 5.5010 0.4179 ] ,

H1 = H 2 = [ 0.0832 0.0900 0.0335] ,

5. STUDY OF A PLANT MODEL In order to illustrate the obtained results, consider the balancing-up control of a simulated truck trailer proposed in [21]:
x1 (k + 1) = (1 (v.t /L)) x1 (k ) + (v.t /L)u (k ), x2 (k + 1) = x2 (k ) + (v.t /L) x1 (k ), x3 (k + 1) = x3 (k ) + v.t .sin[ x2 (k ) + (v.t / 2 L) x1 (k )].

0.0232 0.0107 0.0034 P= 0.0107 0.0424 0.0029 . 0.0034 0.0029 0.0091

The results of both corollaries are shown in Fig. 1.

The membership functions of this model are represented as

M1 = sin( (k )) , M 2 = 1 M1. (k )

The nonlinear model of the vehicle can be described by the two following rules: Rule 1: if v.t . x1 (k ) (k ) = x2 (k ) + 2L is about 0, then
x(k + 1) = A1 x(k ) + B1u (k ).

Fig. 1. Inclusion of the ellipsoid inside the polyhedral set given by direct (in black) and indirect method (in grey).

Abdellah Benzaouia, Said Gounane, Fernando Tadeo, and Ahmed El Hajjaji

Comment: It is obvious that the use of Lemma 3 introduces an additional degree of freedom with the parameter leading to less conservative LMIs as reported by [23] for linear systems. The obtained ellipsoid sets of asymptotic stability obtained with these two methods, for the studied example, are presented in Fig, 1. It is clear that the one corresponding to the second method is less conservative as expected, even the LMIs are applied without any optimization program. 6. CONCLUSION This paper presents stability analysis and design methods for nonlinear systems with actuator saturation. T-S fuzzy models with actuator saturation are used to describe the nonlinear system. Two different methods, one direct and one indirect are used to derive sufficient conditions of asymptotic stability of T-S fuzzy systems with saturated control. Finally, these design methodologies are illustrated by their application to the stabilization of a balancing-up truck trailer. It is shown that the indirect method leads to less conservative LMIs since it leads to more larger stability domains. REFERENCES A. Benzaouia and C. Burgat, Regulator problem for linear discrete-time systems with nonsymmetrical constrained control, Int. J. Control, vol. 48, no. 6, pp. 2441-2451, 1988. A. Benzaouia and A. Hmamed, Regulator problem for linear continuous systems with nonsymmetrical constrained control, IEEE Trans. Aut. Control, vol. 38, no. 10, pp. 1556-1560, 1993. A. Benzaouia and A. Baddou, Piecewise linear constrained control for continuous time systems, IEEE Trans. Aut. Control, vol. 44 no. 7, pp. 14771481, 1999. A. Benzaouia, El Hajjaji, and M. Naib, Stabilization of a class of constrained fuzzy systems: a positive invariance approach, Int. J. of Innovative Computing, Information and Control. vol. 2, no. 4, August 2006. A. Benzaouia, F. Tadeo, and F. Mesquine, The regulator problem for linear systems with saturations on the control and its increments or rate: an LMI approach, IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems Part I, vol. 53, no. 12, pp. 2681-2691, 2006. A. Benzaouia, A. Hmamed, and A. El Hajjaji, Stabilization of controlled positive discrete-time T-S fuzzy systems by state feedback control, Int. J. Adaptive Control and Signal Processing, to appear 2011. F. Blanchini, Set invariance in control - a survey, Automatica, vol. 35, no. 11, pp.1747-1768, 1999. S. Boyd, L. El Ghaoui, E. Feron, and V. Balakrishnan, Linear Matrix Inequalities in System and Control, Theory, SIAM, Philadelphia, PA, 1994. Y. Y. Cao and Z. Lin, Robust stability analysis and fuzzy-scheduling control for nonlinear systems subject to actuator saturation, IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Sys-

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7] [8]

[9]

tems, vol. 11, no. 1, 2003 [10] W. J. Chang, W. H. Huang, and C. C. Ku, Robust fuzzy control for discrete perturbed time-delay affine Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy models, International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 86-97, 2011. [11] A. El Hajjaji, A. Ciocan, and D. Hamad, Four wheel steering control by fuzzy approach, Proc. of Int. Conf. on AI, Simulation and Planning in High Autonomy Systems, Lisbone, Portugal, no. 44, pp. 227-231, 2002. [12] A. El Hajjaji, A. Benzaouia, and M. Naib, Stabilization of fuzzy systems with constrained controls by using positively invariant sets, Mathematical Problems for Engineering, article ID 13832, pp. 117, 2006. [13] G. Feng, Stability analysis of discrete-time fuzzy dynamic systems based on piecewise Lyapunov functions, IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Syst., vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 22-28, 2004. [14] D. H. Lee, J. B. Park, Y. H. Joo, K. C. Lin, and C. H. Ham, Robust H control for uncertain nonlinear active magnetic bearing systems via TakagiSugeno fuzzy models, International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 636-646, 2010. [15] T. Hu, Z. Lin, and B. M. Chen, An analysis and design method for linear systems subject to actuator saturation and disturbance, Automatica, vol. 38, pp. 351-359, 2002. [16] M. Johansson, A. Rantzer, and K. Arzen, Piecewise quadratic stability of fuzzy systems, IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Syst., vol. 7, no. 6, pp. 713-722, 1999. [17] M. Nachidi, A. Benzaouia, and F. Tadeo, Based approach for output-feedback stabilization for discrete time Takagi-Sugeno systems, IEEE Trans. on Fuzzy Systems, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 1188-1196, 2008. [18] M. Nachidi, F. Tadeo, A. Hmamed, and A. Benzaouia, Static output-feedback stabilization for time-delay Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy systems, Proc. of IEEE Conference on Control and Decision, Louisiana, 2007. [19] M. C. de Olivera and R. E. Skelton, Stability tests for constrained linear systems, perspective in robust control, Lecture Notes in Control and Information Science, pp. 241-257, Springer-Verlag, 2001. [20] T. Takagi and M. Sugeno, Fuzzy identification of systems and its applications to modeling and control, IEEE Trans. Syst., Man, Cybern., vol. 15, no. 9, pp. 116-132, 1985. [21] K. Tanaka and M. Sano, A robust stabilization problem of fuzzy control systems and its applications to backing up control of a truck trailer, IEEE Trans. Fuzzy. Syst., vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 119-134, 1994. [22] H. O. Wang, K. Tanaka, and M. F. Griffin, An approach to fuzzy control of nonlinear systems: stability and design issues, IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Syst., vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 14-23, 1996. [23] Y. Wang, S. Li, Y. Cao, Y. Sun, and T. Shou, Invariant approximations and disturbence attenuation

Stabilization of Saturated Discrete-Time Fuzzy Systems

for constrained linear discrete-time systems, International Journal of Information Technology, vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 88-96, 2006. [24] L. K. Wang and X. D. Liu, Robust H fuzzy control for discrete-time nonlinear systems, International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 118-126, 2010.
Abdellah Benzaouia was born in Attaouia (Marrakech) in 1954. He received the degree of Electrical Engineering at the Mohammedia School (Rabat) in 1979 and the Doctorat (Ph.D.) at the University Cadi Ayyad in 1988. He is actually professor at the University of Cadi Ayyad (Marrakech) where he is also the head of a team of research on Robust and Constrained Control (EACPI). His research interests are mainly constrained control, robust control, pole assignment, systems with Markovian jumping parameters, hybrid systems and greenhouses. He collaborates with many teams in France, Canada, Spain and Italy Said Gounane was born in Mesfioua (Marrakech), Morocco, in 1979. He received his masters degrees with specialisation in regulation of industrial system from Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Marrakech, Morocco. He is preparing his Ph.D. on fuzzy systems.

Fernando Tadeo was born in 1969. He received his B.Sc. degree in physics in 1992, and in Electronic Engineering in 1994, both from the University of Valladolid, Spain. After he received his M.Sc. degree in control engineering from the University of Bradford, U.K., he got his Ph.D. degree from the University of Valladolid, Spain, in 1996. Since 1998 he is Lecturer (Profesor Titular) at the University of Valladolid, Spain. His current research interests include robust control, process control, control of systems with constraints and reinforcement learning, applied in several areas, from neutralization processes to robotic manipulators. Ahmed El Hajjaji received his Ph.D. and Habilitation diriger la recherche degrees in automatic control from the University of Picardie Jules Verne, France, in 1993 and 2000, respectively. He was an Associate Professor in the same university from 1994 to 2003. He is currently a Full Professor and Director of the Professional Institute of Electrical Engineering and Industrial Computing, University of Picardie Jules Verne. Since 2001, he has also been also the head of the research team of control and vehicle of Modeling, Information and Systems (MIS) laboratory. His current research interests include fuzzy control, vehicle dynamics, fault-tolerant control, neural networks, mangles systems, and renewable energy systems.