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Published in IET Control Theory and Applications

Received on 22nd June 2009
Revised on 23rd October 2009
doi: 10.1049/iet-cta.2009.0308

ISSN 1751-8644

Stability analysis of digital repetitive control

systems under time-varying sampling period
J.M. Olm1 G.A. Ramos2 R. Costa-Castelló3
1
Department of Applied Mathematics IV, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain
2
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá DC, Colombia
3
Institute of Industrial and Control Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
E-mail: josep.olm@upc.edu

Abstract: Repetitive control is an internal model principle-based technique for tracking periodic references and/or
rejecting periodic disturbances. Digital repetitive controllers are usually designed assuming a fixed frequency for
signals to be tracked/rejected, its main drawback being a dramatic performance decay when this frequency varies.
A common approach to overcome this problem consists of an adaptive change of the sampling time according to
the reference/disturbance period variation. Such a structural change may indeed compromise closed-loop
stability. Nevertheless, no formal stability proofs are reported in the literature. This study addresses the
stability analysis of a digital repetitive control system operating under time-varying sampling period. The
procedure adapts the robust control approach introduced by Fujioka and Suh, which treats the time-varying
parts of the system description as norm-bounded uncertainties, to the special features of digital repetitive
control systems. This results in a conservatism reduction leading to an improvement in the obtained stability
intervals. The proposed technique is also applicable to a more general class of systems incorporating a
discrete-time dynamic controller. The article is completed with the application of the method to two standard
examples in the repetitive control literature. Experimental results confirm the theoretical predictions.

1 Introduction result in a dramatic decay of the controller performance [9].

Repetitive control [1] is a well-established control technique
based on the internal model principle and specifically
designed for tracking/rejecting periodic references/
disturbances. These types of signals are present in many
real-world applications and repetitive control has been
successfully used in different control areas, such as CD and
disk arm actuators [2], robotics [3], electro-hydraulics [4],
electronic rectifiers [5], pulse-width modulated inverters
[6, 7] and shunt active power filters [8].
The most significant drawback of repetitive control lies in
the fact that the period of the signals to be tracked/rejected
must be known a priori because this information is
structurally embedded in the control algorithm. Specifically,
the internal model order N [ N is calculated as the ratio
N = Tp /Ts , Tp being the period of the reference/disturbance
signal and Ts being the controller sampling rate. Hence, even
slight changes in the period Tp of the reference/disturbance
Practical examples of such situations may be found in the
angular velocity variation of rotatory systems [10] and also in
the frequency variations of the electric distribution network
affecting shunt active filters [11].
Several approaches have been proposed to improve the
robustness of repetitive control systems in the presence of
possible variations of Tp . These methodologies may be
grouped into two main frameworks, namely that dealing
with sampling time preservation and that changing it
adaptively. The former consists of two branches: improving
robustness by using large memory elements [9] and
introducing a fictitious sampler operating at a variable
sampling rate and then using a fixed-frequency internal
model [12]. Both alternatives work well for small frequency
variations although at the cost of increasing the
computational burden. The latter approach, which is used
in this article, consists in adapting the controller sampling
rate Ts according to the instantaneous variation of the

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reference/disturbance period Tp , which can be estimated by a
frequency observer, in order to maintain the value of N
constant (see, for example, [13]). This allows steady state
performance to be preserved at a low computational cost.
On the other hand, sampling period adaptation causes the
structure of the system to change from linear time invariant
(LTI) to linear time varying (LTV), which may result in
closed-loop instability. However, no formal studies on the
range of sampling rates in which this transformation
preserves stability have been reported in the literature on
repetitive control. The aim of this paper is to address this
topic with analytical tools.
The stability analysis of sampled-data linear systems with
time-varying sampling rates is a challenging problem that
may be tackled by several approaches. The first [14] uses a
linear matrix inequality (LMI) gridding approach that
establishes necessary (but not sufficient) conditions for
discrete-time quadratic Lyapunov stability. Sufficient stability
conditions are reported in [15], where the aperiodic
sampling operation is modelled as a piecewise continuous
delay in the control input; less conservative conditions are
given in [16] after interpreting the derived stability condition
in terms of the small-gain theorem, while the exploitation of
passivity-type properties produces a further improvement of
the technique [17]. The third approach [18] is based on
hybrid modelling of sampled-data systems and a search of
discontinuous Lyapunov functions. In the works mentioned
above, stability conditions are established in an LMI format.
However, computational issues may arise when solving LMI
problems that involve high-order systems, as is often the case
with repetitive controllers.
Recently, a different insight has been provided in [19, 20].
The main idea in both contributions, which use a static
controller, is to model the non-uniform sampling time
effect as a nominal system affected by an additive, norm-
bounded, time-varying disturbance. Hence, small-gain
theorem-based robust control tools may ensure stability in a
neighbourhood of the nominal sampling period. However,
it is worth mentioning that the stability condition in [20] is
given in terms of LMIs, which rules out its general use in a
repetitive control framework because of the reasons given in
the preceding paragraph.
This article proposes a methodology to obtain the range
of values in which the sampling period Ts of a repetitive
Figure 1 Discrete-time block diagram of the proposed repetitive transfer function
30
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controller can be varied according to the variation of the
reference/disturbance period Tp while preserving closed-
loop stability. The procedure is based on an adaptation and
improvement of the approach introduced in [19, 20] for
repetitive control systems. The key to the improvement is
the use of a discrete-time dynamic controller that yields a
singular disturbance matrix. This introduces a degree of
freedom in the description of the time-varying disturbance
term, which allows an optimal decomposition to be
obtained according to the expected stability interval. On
the contrary, [19, 20] use a fixed decomposition that
becomes non-optimal for singular disturbance matrices.
Furthermore, additional discussion that may lead to a
conservatism reduction of the stability intervals is provided.
In order to illustrate the procedure, a test has been performed
on two standard repetitive control applications: a mechatronic
plant with rotatory elements [21] and a shunt active power
filter [22]. Experimental results confirm the validity of the
theoretical analysis. The examples show an improvement of
the guaranteed stability region over the approach in [19],
especially for the higher order system, that is, the active filter.
It is important to emphasise that the range of sampling
times where stability is preserved is independent of the
dynamics of the frequency observer. Hence, the repetitive
controller and the frequency observer can be designed
independently.
The structure of this paper is as follows. Section 2 contains
a brief description of a digital repetitive controller operating
under aperiodic sampling, as well as the derivation of the
state equations of the system. Section 3 studies the stability
of the system under a time-varying sampling period using
small-gain robustness. Illustrative examples are collected in
Section 4, while conclusions are presented in Section 5.
2 Digital repetitive control under
non-uniform sampling
Repetitive controllers are composed of two main elements:
the internal model, G1 (z), and the stabilising controller,
G2 (z), which are usually implemented in a ‘plug-in’
fashion, as depicted in Fig. 1; that is, the repetitive
compensator is used to increase a nominal controller,
G3 (z). This nominal compensator is designed to stabilise
IET Control Theory Appl., 2011, Vol. 5, Iss. 1, pp. 29– 37
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the plant, G4 (s), and provides disturbance attenuation across a Regarding the time-varying nature of the plant sampling
broad frequency spectrum. period, the stability analysis is carried out in the state-space
formalism. The final part of this section is devoted to
Depending on the periodic signal to deal with, several obtaining the state equations of the system.
types of internal models may be used. The generic internal
model Let the discrete-time state-space representations of blocks
Gi (see Fig. 1) be denoted by (Ai , Bi , Ci , Di ), i ¼ 1, 2, 3, 4.
H (z) The closed-loop system state equations are derived under the
G1 (z) = following assumptions:
zN − H (z)

is shown in Fig. 1, H(z) is a low-pass filter in charge of † The internal model, G1 (z), of Fig. 1 is such that D1 = 0.
introducing robustness in the high-frequency range, while
N = Tp /Ts [ N, where Tp is the period of the signal to † The continuous-time plant G4 (s) has at least relative
be tracked/rejected and Ts is the sampling period. degree 1, so D4 = 0.

The ratio N is embedded in the controller implementation. † The representations corresponding to blocks G1 (z), G2 (z)
This is not a problem if the reference or disturbance periodic and G3 (z) are obtained from the nominal sampling time
signal has a known constant period. Nevertheless, the Ts = T
 and remain constant ∀t.
controller performance decays dramatically when a variation
of Tp occurs. In this article, the controller sampling time Ts is † Only the discrete-time plant model matrices A4 , B4 vary
adapted according to the reference/disturbance period according to sampling rate updating: A4 = A4 (Ts ),
variation Tp (t), and thus maintain a constant value for N. B4 = B4 (Ts ) while C4 is kept constant. Hence, assuming
Hence, on the one hand, G1 (z), G2 (z) and G3 (z) are that (A, B, C, 0) stands for the continuous-time plant
designed and implemented to provide closed-loop stability for state-space representation, that is, G4 (s) = C(sI − A)−1 B,
a nominal sampling time Ts = T  . Sufficient stability criteria then
and several design issues for this purpose are available in
T
[21, 23]. In this way, their structure remains always invariant, AT
that is it undergoes no further structural changes. On the A4 (T ) W e , B4 (T ) W eAr B dr (1)
0
other hand, the period of the sampling device preceding the
plant, G4 (s), is accommodated to the variation of Tp .
Therefore its discrete-time representation is that of an LTV
system. The accommodation scheme is detailed in Fig. 2.
Let the system be sampled at time instants {t0 , t1 , . . . } with
t0 = 0, tk+1 . tk , the sampling periods being Tk = tk+1 − tk .
Remark 1: The practical implementation of a time-varying Let also xk W x(tk ), rk W r(tk ) and yk W y(tk ). The state
Ts depends on the technology used to implement the equations are given by the discrete-time LTV system
controller. Thus the mechatronic system and the active
filter in Section 4 incorporate implementations based on a xk+1 = F(Tk )xk + P(Tk )rk , yk = Yxk (2)
real-time operating system and a digital signal processor,
respectively. Ts = Tp /N is approximated by the closest
where
representable time delay according to the quantification
features of the controller. In most applications this  
quantification phenomenon may be negligible from a K L
F(T ) W (3)
practical point of view. B4 (T )M A4 (T ) + B4 (T )Q

Figure 2 Accommodation of the sampling period Ts to possible variations of Tp

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with Proposition 1: Let the sampling period, Tk , take values in a

compact subset T , R+ . Then, the uniform exponential
⎛ ⎞ ⎛ ⎞ stability of
A1 0 0 −B1 C4
⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟
K W ⎝ B2 C1 A2 0 ⎠, LW⎝ 0 ⎠ xk+1 = F(Tk )xk (4)
B 3 D 2 C1 B3 C2 A3 −B3 C4
  implies the uniform BIBO stability of (2).
M W D 3 D2 C 1 D3 C 2 C3 , Q W −D3 C4
Proof: According to Lemma 27.4 in [24], the result follows
and if P(Tk ) and Y are uniformly bounded matrices, ∀k ≥ 0. This
is indeed true: P(Tk ) depends continuously on Tk , which
 ` belongs to a compact set T , while Y is a constant matrix
P(T ) W B1` 0 B3`  (B4 (T )C3 )` because so is C4 . A
Y W 0 0 0 C4
Proposition 2 [24]: Let the sampling period, Tk , take
values in a compact subset T , R+ . If there exists a matrix
Remark 2: When Tk remains constant, that is, Tk = T ,
P such that
∀k ≥ 0, (2) becomes a discrete-time LTI system with
z-transfer function
F(Tk )` PF(Tk ) − P , 0, ∀Tk [ T ,

 )]−1 P(T
G(z) = Y[zI − F(T ) s.t. P = P ` . 0 (5)

then (4) is uniformly exponentially stable.

In an aperiodic sampling time framework, F(Tk ) and P(Tk )
vary with k, and the z-transform representation is no longer The stability analysis follows the approach proposed in [19,
valid. 20], where non-uniform sampling is viewed as a nominal
sampling period affected by an additive disturbance. Thus,
the problem is faced from a robustness analysis viewpoint
3 Stability analysis and solved by a simple application of the small-gain
theorem. In the present case, the repetitive control system
In repetitive control systems, the internal model is designed is designed to provide closed-loop stability for a nominal
to ensure a null error in the steady state provided that case. Then, the actual problem is to quantify the ‘amount’
closed-loop stability is guaranteed. Hence, assuming that of disturbance due to aperiodic sampling that the system
G1 (z), G2 (z) and G3 (z) are constructed to provide stability can accommodate while preserving stability.
for a nominal sampling time Ts = T  , the aim is to prove
both internal and bounded-input bounded-output (BIBO)
Proposition 3: Let T = T be a fixed sampling period and
stability for the non-uniformly sampled system (2).
let us define uk = Tk − T
 . Then, the matrix F(T ) may be
k
written as
This section is structured as follows. Proposition 1 relates
the uniform BIBO stability of (2) to the uniform exponential
F(Tk ) = F(T
 ) + GD̃(u )C(T
k
) (6)
stability of its zero-input response (4), which, in turn, is a
sufficient condition for internal stability. Then, Proposition
where
2 establishes the sufficient Lyapunov condition (5) for the
uniform exponential stability of (4). Finally, Theorem 4   u
0 0
provides a small-gain theorem-based sufficient condition D̃(u) W , D(u) W eAr dr (7)
0 D(u)
for (5) that, according to Propositions 2 and 1, eventually 0
results in a sufficient condition for both uniform   
0 0 0 I
exponential stability and uniform BIBO stability of (2). C(T ) W (8)
A4 (T )A A4 (T )B M Q

Throughout the article . denotes the 2-norm of a matrix, and G [ J, with
that is, the matrix norm induced by the euclidean vector
norm. Hence, for any real matrix R, R = [r(R` R)]1/2 ,  
G1 0
with r(.) standing for the spectral radius. Moreover, recall J := {G; GD̃(u) = D̃(u)} = (9)
G2 I
that given a discrete-time LTI system with constant
sampling time Ts and transfer function matrix G(z), its Proof: Recalling (1) and using the well-known fact that
H1 -norm is defined as
u
eA u = I + eAr A dr
G(z)1 = max{G(e j vTs ), ∀v [ R} 0

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one has that (see (7)) indicates that D̃(T − T  ) = D(T − T  ).
Hence, the stated hypotheses are sufficient for (5) to be
 uk 
)
A(uk +T feasible. Then, Propositions 2 and 1 yield, respectively, the
A4 (Tk ) = e = I+ Ar )
e A dr A4 (T uniform exponential stability and the uniform BIBO
0
stability of (2). A
 ) + D(u )AA (T
= A 4 (T k 4
 ) = A (T
4
 ) + D(u )A (T
k 4
 )A
(10) Remark 3: In view of Theorem 4, the obtention of better
stability regions (i.e. wider intervals T ) may depend on the
The equivalence AA4 (T ) = A (T
 )A is immediate using the
4 following factors:
power series definition of the matrix exponential (see (1)).
Also 1. Minimisation of gT . It may be achieved by selecting a
 Tk T  Tk matrix G[J that minimises the norm
B4 (Tk ) = e B dr =
Ar
e B dr +
Ar
eAr B dr GT (z)1 = GT (z, G)1 . This problem is tackled in
0 0 
T Proposition 5.
uk

) +
= B4 (T eA(s+T ) B ds 2. Reduction of conservatism in the calculation of interval T
0 where D(T − T  ) ≤ g−1
 is ensured. Recalling (7), it is
T
 ) + D(u )A (T
= B4 (T  )B (11) immediate that the repetitive control system has no
k 4
influence on this factor; indeed, it depends exclusively on
The result follows taking (10) and (11) to (3) for the plant.
T = Tk . A
Proposition 5: A solution of the problem
Notice that, using Proposition 3, the original system (4)
may be written as min{C(T )[zI − F(T )]−1 G1 }, s.t. G [ J

xk+1 = [F(T
 ) + GD̃(u )C(T
k
 )]x
k (12) is given by
 
leading to the following interpretation [19]: for any G [ J, 0 0
G= (16)
(12) can be regarded as the LTI system 0 I

xk+1 = F(T )x + Gu
k k Proof: Assuming that G [ J (see (9)) and writing C(T ),
S := (13)
vk = C(T )xk
 [zI − F(T )]−1 in block form as
   
with associated discrete-time transfer function 0 0 −1 F11 F12
C(T ) = , [zI − F(T )] =
C1 C2 F21 F22
−1
GT (z) = C(T
 )[zI − F(T
 )] G
where Ci = Ci (T ) and Fij = Fij (z, T ), it results that
receiving the time-varying output feedback control action
 
uk = D̃(uk )vk . 0 0
GT (z, G) =
GT 1 (z, G1 , G2 ) GT 2 (z)
Theorem 4: Assume that T = T is a nominal sampling
period. Let with
gT = (1 + 1)GT (z)1 , 1.0 (14) GT 1 = (C1 F11 + C2 F21 )G1 + (C1 F12 + C2 F22 )G2
be an upper bound of the H1 -norm of system S (13) and also GT 2 = C1 F12 + C2 F22
let T , R+ be compact. If
Hence, the definition of the H1 -norm and the well-known
 ) ≤ 1,
gT D(T − T ∀T [ T (15) fact that matrix expansion does not decrease norms result
in GT (z)1 ≥ GT 2 (z)1 . A
then (2) is uniformly exponentially stable and uniformly
BIBO stable in T . Remark 4: In [19, 20], decomposition (6) uses G = I. This
is, indeed, the only possibility when D̃(u) is a non-singular
Proof: According to Lemma 2 in [19], if r[F(T )] , 1 and matrix, but it becomes a non-optimal selection when that is
gT D̃(T − T
 ) ≤ 1, ∀T [ T , then the LMI problem (5) is not the case, as shown in Proposition 5. Thus, the
feasible. The fact that T be a nominal sampling period proposed procedure is generalisable to any system matching
ensures that r[F(T  )] , 1 is met by design, whereas the (6) and possessing a singular disturbance matrix (7). This
particular block-diagonal structure of D̃(u) = D̃(T − T) encompasses the class of systems exhibiting the block

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structure in Fig. 1 but operating with a generic discrete-time
dynamic controller.
4 Examples
4.1 Mechatronic system with rotatory
elements
The reader is referred to [21, 25] for a detailed plant
description. Essentially, the goal is to control the angular
speed of a DC motor subjected to periodic output
disturbances.
Following Section 3 and considering Remark 3, the
settings for the plant and the repetitive controller yield
GT (z)1 = 222.1471. In order to define gT (see (14)),
1 ¼ 0.0001 is selected. Furthermore, the plant being first
order yields a scalar value for its continuous-time system
matrix: A ¼ 29.3747; hence, an exact bounding of
D(T − T  ) is possible. A straightforward calculation
shows that (15) is fulfilled with
    
T = T + 1 log 1 − A , T + 1 log 1 + A
A gT A gT

The continuous-time plant dynamics is assumed to be

modelled by The specific numerical values are T = [0.6, 9.6] ms, which
indicates that the performance of the device is guaranteed
in the range v [ [4.1672, 67.6473] rev/s. This result is less
8.762 rev/s
G4 (s) = conservative than that obtained with G = I, as proposed in
0.10667s + 1 V [19], namely v [ [4.2039, 59.8475] rev/s. Note that the
stability interval is lengthened by 14%.
The controller is constructed for a nominal speed of
 = 8 rev/s and a 25 samples per period operation, that is,
v Fig. 3 contains experimental results for the above-designed
N ¼ 25. These conditions imply a nominal sampling repetitive controller with a constant sampling rate: Ts is fixed
period of T  =T  N −1 = (N v
p  )−1 = 5 ms. Under these at the nominal value T  = 5 ms. During the time interval
assumptions, the nominal discrete-time plant is [0, 10] s, the reference is maintained constant at the
nominal value of v  = 8 rev/s: note that the disturbances
0.4012 are rejected. At t ¼ 10 s a ramp reference change from
G4 (z) =
z − 0.9542 v ¼ 8 rev/s to v ¼ 6.25 rev/s is introduced in the system.
The speed is then kept constant for 5 s and finally at
According to [25], the following design criteria are taken into t ¼ 20 s it is increased at a constant acceleration until it
account reaches the value v ¼ 10.81 rev/s at t ¼ 35 s. Fig. 3 reveals
that after t ¼ 10 s the system can no longer reject the
H (z) = 0.02z + 0.96 + 0.02z−1 disturbances. The action generated by the control law is
  also portrayed in Fig. 3. It can be seen that the controller
G3 (z)G4 (z) −1 produces the necessary action to compensate for
G2 (z) = 0.3
1 + G3 (z)G4 (z) disturbances when operating at the nominal speed, that is,
up to t ¼ 10 s, whereas when it works at different speeds,
and G3 (z) = 0.25. This results in a matrix F with that is, for t . 10 s, the control action is reduced or is not
dimensions 28 × 28. suitable, so disturbances cannot be properly compensated for.

Figure 3 Performance decay when using a repetitive controller with a constant sampling rate

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Figure 4 Closed-loop system behaviour using a repetitive controller with an adaptive sampling rate

Fig. 4 shows the same experiment using an adaptive The controller is constructed for a nominal frequency of
sampling rate, which is accommodated to the period of the n = 50 Hz, and N ¼ 400 is selected to obtain a
desired reference. One may observe that, in accordance good reconstruction of the continuous-time signals; this
with the theoretical analysis, the system performance is yields a nominal sampling period of T  =T  N −1 =
p
−1
preserved. The low output oscillation is due to (N n) = 0.05 ms. Under these assumptions the nominal
measurement noise. The control action is also depicted in discrete-time plant is
Fig. 4. It is worth mentioning that the control variable is
the voltage applied to the motor input, its oscillations being 0.02855z + 0.01783
G4 (z) = −
those of an electrical variable, not of a mechanical one. z2 − 1.215z + 0.2387

Moreover
4.2 Shunt active power filter
Shunt active power filters are devices that are connected in H (z) = 0.25z + 0.5 + 0.25z−1
parallel with non-linear and reactive loads and are in charge  
of compensating for these characteristics in order to ensure G3 (z)G4 (z) −1
G2 (z) = 0.3
the quality of the distribution network. Fig. 5 shows the 1 + G3 (z)G4 (z)
distribution network voltage, vn , and the network current,
in , when a rectifier (i.e. a non-linear load) is connected to and
the network and no active filter is acting. This current has
−0.6305z + 0.629
a total harmonic distortion (THD) of 65.5% and induces a G3 (z) =
THD of 5.6% in vn . In this work, the THD is calculated z − 0.9985
with respect to the root mean square value of the signal.
The function of active filters is to inject the current needed
to transform the network current in into a sinusoidal one,
that is, similar to that generated by a pure resistive load,
with low THD in vn and in . The reader is referred to [11,
22] for a more detailed description of the system.

In this case, the repetitive controller matches the block

structure of Fig. 1 but with a slight difference, namely it is
an odd-harmonic repetitive controller with z-transfer function

H (z)
G1 (z) = −
zN /2 + H (z)

The continuous-time plant model is now

1 Figure 5 Non-linear load and no active filter: vn and in

G4 (s) = −
2.854 × 10−8 s2 + 0.00008578s + 0.5 against time

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Table 1 Shunt active filter: stability intervals in frequency units, Hz
Bounds G = col([0, 0]` , [0, I]` )
numerical [28.4944, 102.3305]
log norm [28.5096, 102.2870]
Schur decomposition [29.9672, 95.5837]
This results in a high-order closed-loop system, the
dimensions of F now being 209× 209.
According to Section 3 and Remark 3, the above settings
yield GT (z)1 = 2.6530 × 104 . In order to define gT (see
(14)), 1 ¼ 0.0001 is selected. Furthermore, the continuous-
time plant matrix is
 
−28651.9058 −4276.5664
A=
4096 0
Table 1 contains the stability intervals obtained with the
optimised G defined in (16) and also for G = I (i.e. the
proposal in [19, 20]) using three different norm bounds for
the matrix exponential D: a numerical calculation, the log
norm of a matrix with respect to the 2-norm [19] and a
Schur decomposition-derived bound [20]. Notice that the
numerical bound and the log norm provide similar results,
while the latter appears to be sharper than the Schur
decomposition bound. The reduction in conservatism
achieved with the assignment of G proposed in this article
is between 300 and 336%, depending on the norm-bound
calculation method. It is worth mentioning that nominal
line frequency is usually 50 or 60 Hz depending on the
geographical area, and may vary by not more than 10% of
its value. Therefore line frequency variations in the interval
[45, 66] Hz can be expected.
The addition of the active filter in parallel with the rectifier
and under appropriate repetitive control causes the shape of
Figure 6 Non-linear load and active filter at a network
frequency of 50 Hz: vn , in against time
36
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2011
G=I
[42.4676, 59.3855]
[42.4680, 59.3850]
[42.6741, 59.0878]
Figure 7 Non-linear load and the active filter when the
network frequency changes from 50 Hz to 52 Hz: v n , in
against time
the current in at the source port to be nearly sinusoidal in
steady state with 2.0% THD. Consequently, the source
voltage recovers a non-distorted shape with 0.2% THD. It
is also worth mentioning that the power factor (PF) at the
port is unitary (see Fig. 6).
In the next experiment the network frequency of the
system is changed from 50 to 52 Hz in a step manner. The
responses of vn and in , are plotted in Fig. 7 and show that,
after a transient, the system reaches the steady state. When
the system is in the steady state at 52 Hz, the PF recovers a
unitary value while the THD for in is 2.1%.
5 Conclusions
In this paper, the stability of digital repetitive control systems
operating under a time-varying sampling period is analysed.
The article presents a methodology to obtain a range of
sampling periods where closed-loop stability is preserved.
The study, which is conducted using small-gain theorem-
based robust control techniques and takes advantage of the
special features of repetitive control systems, introduces
conservatism reduction elements that improve the obtained
stability intervals. The procedure is also applicable to a
more general class of systems containing a discrete-time
dynamic controller.
The proposed methodology is exemplified by means of two
standard repetitive control applications, namely a mechatronic
IET Control Theory Appl., 2011, Vol. 5, Iss. 1, pp. 29– 37
doi: 10.1049/iet-cta.2009.0308

plant with rotatory elements and a shunt active power filter.
The experimental results confirm the theoretical predictions.
6 Acknowledgment
This work was partially supported by the Spanish Ministerio
de Educación y Ciencia under project DPI2007-62582.
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& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2011