Band-Passing Nonlinearity in Reset Elements

Abstract: This paper addresses nonlinearity in reset elements and their effects. Reset elements are known for having less phase lag compared to their linear counterparts; however, they are nonlinear elements and produce higher-order harmonics. This paper investigates the higher-order harmonics for reset elements with one resetting state and proposes an architecture and a method of design which allows for band-passing the nonlinearity and its effects, namely, higher-order harmonics and phase advantage. The nonlinearity of reset elements is not entirely useful for all frequencies, e.g., they are useful for reducing phase lag at cross-over frequency region; however, higher-order harmonics can compromise tracking and disturbance rejection performance at lower frequencies. Using proposed "phase shaping" method, one can selectively suppress nonlinearity of a single-state reset element in a desired range of frequencies and allow the nonlinearity to provide its phase benefit in a different desired range of frequencies. This can be especially useful for the reset elements in the framework of "Constant in gain, Lead in phase" (CgLp) filter, which is a newly introduced nonlinear filter, bound to circumvent the well-known linear control limitation -- the waterbed effect.