Revisiting Certainty Equivalence: The Structural Coupling Between Estimation and Control in Underactuated Nonlinear Systems
The paper investigates how estimating states in nonlinear systems creates an intrinsic coupling between estimation and tracking dynamics, which breaks Certainty Equivalence. It proposes an Estimation-Aware (EA) control paradigm to manage this coupling by incorporating uncertainty measures into the control law. This approach successfully decouples the feedback loops, leading to a 39% increase in tracking bandwidth and improved stability margins.