Local Stability and Convergence Analysis of Neural Network Controllers With Error Integral Inputs

This article investigates the local stability and local convergence of a class of neural network (NN) controllers with error integrals as inputs for reference tracking. It is formally proved that if the input of the NN controller consists exclusively of error terms, the control system shows a non-zero steady-state error for any constant reference except for one specific point, for both single-layer and multi-layer NN controllers. It is further proved that adding error integrals to the input of the (single- and multi-layers) NN controller is one sufficient way to remove the steady-state error for any constant reference. Due to the nonlinearity of the NN controllers, the NN control systems are linearized at the equilibrium points. We provide proof that if all the eigenvalues of the linearized NN control system have negative real parts, local asymptotic stability and local exponential convergence are guaranteed. Two case studies were explored to verify the theoretical results: a single-layer NN controller in a 1-D system and a four-layer NN controller in a 2-D system applied to renewable energy integration. Simulations demonstrate that when NN controllers and the corresponding generalized proportional-integral (PI) controllers have the same eigenvalues, all control systems exhibit almost the same responses in a small neighborhood of their respective equilibrium points.