Control Engineering with Python

• 📖 Course Materials

• ©️ License CC BY 4.0

• 🏦 ITN, Mines Paris - PSL University

Symbols

🐍 Imports

from numpy import *
from numpy.linalg import *
from matplotlib.pyplot import *
from scipy.integrate import solve_ivp

🐍 Stream Plot Helper

def Q(f, xs, ys):
    X, Y = meshgrid(xs, ys)
    fx = vectorize(lambda x, y: f([x, y])[0])
    fy = vectorize(lambda x, y: f([x, y])[1])
    return X, Y, fx(X, Y), fy(X, Y)

🏷️ Simulation

Numerical approximation solution \(x(t)\) to the IVP

\[ \dot{x} = f(x), \; x(t_0) = x_0 \]

on some finite time span \([t_0, t_f]\).

🏷️ Euler Scheme

Pick a (small) fixed time step \(\Delta t > 0\).

Then use repeatedly the approximation:

\[ \begin{split} x(t + \Delta t) & \simeq x(t) + \Delta t \times \dot{x}(t) \\ & = x(t) + \Delta t \times f(x(t)) \\ x(t + 2\Delta t) & \simeq x(t+\Delta t) + \Delta t \times \dot{x}(t+ \Delta t) \\ & = x(t+\Delta t) + \Delta t \times f(x(t+\Delta t)) \\ x(t+3\Delta t) & \simeq \cdots \end{split} \]

to compute a sequence of states \(x_k \simeq x(t+k \Delta t)\).

🐍 Euler Scheme

def basic_solve_ivp(f, t_span, y0, dt=1e-3):
    t0, t1 = t_span
    ts, xs = [t0], [y0]
    while ts[-1] < t1:
        t, x = ts[-1], xs[-1]
        t_next, x_next = t + dt, x + dt * f(x)
        ts.append(t_next); xs.append(x_next)
    return (array(ts), array(xs).T)

📖 Usage - Arguments

• f, vector field (\(n\)-dim \(\to\) \(n\)-dim),

• t_span, time span (t0, t1),

• y0, initial state (\(n\)-dim),

• dt, time step.

📖 Usage - Returns

• t, 1-dim array

  t = [t0, t0 + dt, ...].

• x, 2-dim array, shape (n, len(t))

  x[i][k]: value of x_i(t_k).

🔍 Rotation

\[ \left| \begin{split} \dot{x}_1 &= -x_2 \\ \dot{x}_2 &= +x_1 \end{split} \right. \;\; \mbox{ with } \;\; \left| \begin{array}{l} x_1(0) = 1\\ x_2(0) = 0 \end{array} \right. \]

🐍 💻

def f(x):
    x1, x2 = x
    return array([-x2, x1])
t0, t1 = 0.0, 5.0
y0 = array([1.0, 0.0])

t, x = basic_solve_ivp(f, (t0, t1), y0)

📈 Trajectories

figure()
plot(t, x[0], label="$x_1$")
plot(t, x[1], label="$x_2$")
grid(True)
xlabel("time $t$")
legend()

📈 Trajectory (State Space)

def plot_trajectory_in_state_space(x):
    x1, x2 = x[0], x[1]
    plot(x1, x2, "k");
    plot(x1[0], x2[0], "ko")
    dx1, dx2 = x1[-1] - x1[-2], x2[-1] - x2[-2]
    arrow(x1[-1], x2[-1], dx1, dx2,
          width=0.02, color="k", zorder=10)

📈 Stream Plot + Trajectory

figure()
xs = linspace(-3.0, 3.0, 50)
ys = linspace(-1.5, 1.5, 50)
streamplot(*Q(f, xs, ys), color="lightgrey")
plot_trajectory_in_state_space(x)
axis("equal"); grid(True)

⚠️ Don’t do this at home!

Now that you understand the basics

• ☠️ Do NOT use this basic solver (anymore)!

• ☠️ Do NOT roll your own ODE solver !

Instead

• ❤️ Use a feature-rich and robust solver.

(Solvers are surprisingly hard to get right.)

📖 Scipy Integrate

Use (for example):

from scipy.integrate import solve_ivp

📖 Documentation: solve_ivp

Features: time-dependent vector field, error control, dense outputs, multiple integration schemes, etc.

🔍 Rotation

Compute the solution \(x(t)\) for \(t\in[0,2\pi]\) of the IVP:

\[ \left| \begin{split} \dot{x}_1 &= -x_2 \\ \dot{x}_2 &= +x_1 \end{split} \right. \; \mbox{ with } \; \left| \begin{array}{l} x_1(0) = 1\\ x_2(0) = 0 \end{array} \right. \]

🐍 Rotation

def fun(t, y):
    x1, x2 = y
    return array([-x2, x1])
t_span = [0.0, 2*pi]
y0 = [1.0, 0.0]
result = solve_ivp(fun=fun, t_span=t_span, y0=y0)

⚠️ Non-Autonomous Systems

The solver is designed for time-dependent systems:

\[ \dot{x} = f(t, x) \]

The t argument in the definition of fun is mandatory, even if the returned value doesn’t depend on it (when the system is effectively time-invariant).

🐍 Result “Bunch”

The result is a dictionary-like object with attributes:

• t : array, time points, shape (n_points,),

• y : array, values of the solution at t, shape (n, n_points),

• …

(See 📖 solve_ivp documentation)

🐍

rt = result["t"]
x1 = result["y"][0]
x2 = result["y"][1]

📈

figure()
t = linspace(0, 2*pi, 1000)
plot(t, cos(t), "k--")
plot(t, sin(t), "k--")
plot(rt, x1, ".-", label="$x_1(t)$")
plot(rt, x2, ".-", label="$x_2(t)$")
xlabel("$t$"); grid(); legend()

🏷️ Variable Step Size

The step size is:

• variable: \(t_{n+1} - t_n\) may not be constant,

• automatically selected by the solver,

The solver shall meet the user specification, but should select the largest step size to do so to minimize the number of computations.

Optionally, you can specify a max_step (default: \(+\infty\)).

🏷️ Error Control

We generally want to control the (local) error \(e(t)\): the difference between the numerical solution and the exact one.

• atol is the absolute tolerance (default: \(10^{-6}\)),

• rtol is the relative tolerance (default: \(10^{-3}\)).

The solver ensures (approximately) that at each step:

\[ |e(t)| \leq \mathrm{atol} + \mathrm{rtol} \times |x(t)| \]

🔍 🐍 Solver Options

Example:

options = {
    # at least 20 data points
    "max_step": 2*pi/20,
    # standard absolute tolerance
    "atol"    : 1e-6,
    # very large relative tolerance
    "rtol"    : 1e9
}

🐍 Simulation

result = solve_ivp(
    fun=fun, t_span=t_span, y0=y0,
    **options
)
rt = result["t"]
x1 = result["y"][0]
x2 = result["y"][1]

📈 Graph

figure()
t = linspace(0, 2*pi, 20)
plot(t, cos(t), "k--")
plot(t, sin(t), "k--")
plot(rt, x1, ".-", label="$x_1(t)$")
plot(rt, x2, ".-", label="$x_2(t)$")
xlabel("$t$"); grid(); legend()

🏷️ Dense Outputs

Using a small max_step is usually the wrong way to “get more data points” since this will trigger many (potentially expensive) evaluations of fun.

Instead, use dense outputs: the solver may return the discrete data result["t"] and result["y"] and an approximate solution result["sol"] as a function of t with little extra computations.

🔍 🐍 Solver Options

options = {
    "dense_output": True
}

🐍 Simulation

result = solve_ivp(
    fun=fun, t_span=t_span, y0=y0,
    **options
)
rt = result["t"]
x1 = result["y"][0]
x2 = result["y"][1]
sol = result["sol"]

📈 Graph

figure()
t = linspace(0, 2*pi, 1000)
plot(t, sol(t)[0], "-", label="$x_1(t)$")
plot(t, sol(t)[1], "-", label="$x_2(t)$")
plot(rt, x1, ".", color="C0")
plot(rt, x2, ".", color="C1")
xlabel("$t$"); grid(); legend()