Quantitative Robust Control Engineering: Theory and Experimental Results on Wind Turbines

Abstract

This paper presents a summary of the main concepts and references of the Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT). It is a frequency domain engineering method to design robust controllers. It explicitly emphasises the use of feedback to simultaneously reduce the effects of model plant uncertainty and satisfy performance specifications. QFT has shown a great power to solve real world problems. The second part of the paper describes a new direct drive, variable speed, multipole wind turbine of 1650 kW, and shows some representative experimental results of the wind turbine in different wind speed conditions and controlled by the QFT robust control technique.