Finite-time tracking using sliding mode control

Finite-time stability involves dynamical systems whose trajectories converge to an equilibrium state in finite time. In this paper, we consider a general class of fully actuated mechanical systems described by Euler–Lagrange dynamics and the class of underactuated systems represented by mobile robot dynamics that are required to reach and maintain the desired trajectory in finite time. An approach known as the terminal sliding mode control (TSMC) involves non-smooth sliding surfaces such that, while on the sliding surface, the error states converge to the origin in finite time thus ensuring finite-time tracking. The main advantage of this control scheme is in fast converging times without excessive control effort. Such controllers are known to have singularities in some parts of the state space and, in this paper, we propose a method of partitioning the state space into two regions where the TSMC is bounded and its complement. We show that the region of bounded TSMC is invariant and design an auxiliary sliding mode controller predicated on linear smooth sliding surface for the initial conditions outside this region. Furthermore, we extend these results to address TSMC for underactuated systems characterized by the mobile robot dynamics. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach by implementing it for a scenario when multiple dynamic agents are required to move in a fixed formation with respect to the formation leader. Finally, we validate our results experimentally using a wheeled mobile robot platform.     

Adaptive sliding mode control for uncertain nonlinear multi-agent tracking systems subject to node failures

The tracking problem of high-order nonlinear multi-agent systems (MAS) with uncertainty is solved by designing adaptive sliding mode control. During the tracking process, node failures are possible to occur, a new agent replaces the failed one. Firstly, a distributed nonsingular terminal sliding mode(NTSM) control scheme is designed for the tracking agents. A novel continuous function is designed in the NTSM to eliminate the singularity and meanwhile guarantee the estimation of finite convergence time. Secondly, the unknown uncertainties in the tracking agents are compensated by proposing an adaptive mechanism in the NTSM. The adaptive mechanism adjusts the control input through estimating the derivative bound of the unknown uncertainties dynamically. Thirdly, the tracking problem with node failures and agent replacements is further investigated. Based on the constructed impulsive-dependent Lyapunov function, it is proved that the overall system will track the target in finite time even with increase of jump errors. Finally, comparison simulations are conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of proposed adaptive nonsingular terminal sliding mode control method for tracking systems suffering node failures.     

Modeling and switching control of air-breathing hypersonic vehicle with variable geometry inlet

In this paper, a multi-model switching control is developed for air-breathing hypersonic vehicle with variable geometry inlet(AHV-VGI). A variable geometry inlet with the translating cowl is adopted to capture the enough air mass flow for the scramjet engine, which can ensure a more powerful thrust. However, the using of VGI causes the unknown changes of the aerodynamics and thrust, making the model of AHV more complex. Therefore, we firstly analyze the thrust characteristic with the translating cowl and present the conception of optimal elongation distance of translating cowl(EDTC). Consequently, multiple different nonlinear aerodynamic models are constructed by curve fitting for each position of the translating cowl. Then, a switching mechanism dependent on EDTC is proposed and the adaptive RBF neural controllers are designed for velocity subsystem and altitude system of every model. Furthermore, the common Lyapunov functional is constructed to prove the stability of the multi-model switching process. Finally, numerical simulations are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach for AHV-VGI.     

Flatness-based adaptive sliding mode tracking control for a quadrotor with disturbances

In this paper, a flatness-based adaptive sliding mode control strategy is presented to solve the trajectory tracking problem of a quadrotor. According to the differential flatness theory, the typical under-actuated quadrotor dynamics is transformed into a fully-actuated one. Based on this model, backstepping sliding mode controllers are designed to solve the trajectory tracking problem. To improve the robustness to disturbances, extended state observers are applied as a feedforward compensation of disturbances. Moreover, considering the high-order dynamics and possible instability caused by large observer gains, the adaptive method is applied to compensate for the estimation error. The effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is verified in simulations.     

Quadrotor vehicle control via sliding mode controller driven by sliding mode disturbance observer

Over the last decade, considerable interest has been shown from industry, government and academia to the design of Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) autonomous aerial vehicles. This paper uses the recently developed sliding mode control driven by sliding mode disturbance observer (SMC-SMDO) approach to design a robust flight controller for a small quadrotor vehicle. This technique allows for a continuous control robust to external disturbance and model uncertainties to be computed without the use of high control gain or extensive computational power. The robustness of the control to unknown external disturbances also leads to a reduction of the design cost as less pre-flight analyses are required. The multiple-loop, multiple time-scale SMC-SMDO flight controller is designed to provide robust position and attitude control of the vehicle while relying only on knowledge of the limits of the disturbances. Extensive simulations of a 6 DOF computer model demonstrate the robustness of the control when faced with external disturbances (including wind, collision and actuator failure) as well as model uncertainties.     

Adaptive sliding mode trajectory tracking control of robotic airships with parametric uncertainty and wind disturbance

An adaptive sliding mode trajectory tracking controller is developed for fully-actuated robotic airships with parametric uncertainties and unknown wind disturbances. Based on the trajectory tracking model of robotic airships, an adaptive sliding mode control strategy is proposed to ensure the asymptotic convergence of trajectory tracking errors and adaptive estimations. The crucial thinking involves an adaptive scheme for the controller gains to avoid the off-line tuning. Specially, the uncertain physical parameters and unknown wind disturbances are rejected by variable structure control, and boundary layer technique is employed to avoid the undesired control chattering phenomenon. Computer experiments are performed to demonstrate the performance and advantage of the proposed control method.     

Adaptive fault-tolerant attitude control for hypersonic reentry vehicle subject to complex uncertainties

In this paper, a novel fast attitude adaptive fault-tolerant control (FTC) scheme based on adaptive neural network and command filter is presented for the hypersonic reentry vehicles (HRV) with complex uncertainties which contain parameter uncertainties, un-modeled dynamics, actuator faults, and external disturbances. To improve the performance of closed-loop FTC, command filter and neural network are introduced to reconstruct system nonlinearities that are related to complex uncertainties. Compared with the FTC scheme with only neural network, the FTC scheme with command filter and neural network has fewer controller design parameters so that the computational complexity is decreased and the control efficiency is improved, which is of great significance for HRV. Then, the adaptive backstepping fault-tolerant controller based on command filter and neural network is designed, which can solve the complexity explosion problem in the standard backstepping control and the small uncertainty problem in the backstepping control only containing command filter. Moreover, to improve the approximation accuracy of the neural network-based universal approximator, an adaptive update law of neural network weights is designed by using the convex optimization technique. It is proved that the presented FTC scheme can ensure that the closed-loop control system is stable and the tracking errors are convergent. Finally, simulation results are carried out to verify the superiority and effectiveness of the presented FTC scheme.     

Offset-free trajectory tracking control for hypersonic vehicle under external disturbance and parametric uncertainty

A novel offset-free trajectory tracking control strategy is proposed for a hypersonic vehicle under external disturbances and parameter uncertainties. In order to realize the real-time control for the hypersonic vehicle, the predictive control law is divided into the on-line design and off-line design. Unlike general nonlinear disturbance observer-based control which involves designing the disturbance compensation strategy, the influences of the disturbances on the velocity and altitude are attenuated by the direct feedback compensation (DFC). Particularly, the offset-free tracking feature is proved for the output reference signal. Simulations show that the real-time control can be realized for the hypersonic vehicle, the controls and angle of attack are all in their given constraint scopes, and the velocity and altitude can track the given references accurately even under mismatched disturbances.     

Event-triggered sliding mode tracking control of autonomous surface vehicles

This paper is concerned with an event-triggered sliding mode control (SMC) scheme for trajectory tracking in autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs). First, an event-triggered variable that consists of tracking error, desired trajectory and exogenous input of the reference system is introduced to decrease the magnitude of the robust SMC term. Then, the reaching conditions of the designed event-triggered sliding mode are established. Moreover, the event-triggered induced errors that exist in the rotation matrix of the ASV are analyzed. In the presence of parameter uncertainties and external disturbances, the proposed event-triggered SMC scheme can ensure the control accuracy and low-frequency actuator updates. Then both actuator wear and energy consumption of the actuators can be reduced comparing with the traditional time-triggered controller. The proposed controller not only guarantees uniform ultimate boundedness of the tracking error but also ensures non-accumulation of inter-execution times. The results are illustrated through simulation examples.     

Adaptive dynamic surface and sliding mode tracking control for uncertain QUAV with time-varying load and appointed-time prescribed performance

In this paper, the appointed-time prescribed performance and finite-time tracking control problem is investigated for quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (QUAV) in the presence of time-varying load, unknown external disturbances and unknown system parameters. For the position loop, a novel appointed-time prescribed performance control (ATPPC) strategy is proposed based on adaptive dynamic surface control (DSC) frameworks and a new prescribed performance function to achieve the appointed-time convergence and prescribed transient and steady-state performance. For the attitude loop, a new finite-time control strategy is proposed based on a new designed sliding mode control technique to track the desired attitude in finite time. Some assumptions of knowing system parameters are canceled. Finally, the stability of the closed-loop system is proved via Lyapunov Theory. Simulations are performed to show the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed control scheme.     

Adaptive sliding mode control for a class of MIMO nonlinear systems with uncertainties

This paper proposes an adaptive scheme of designing sliding mode control (SMC) for affine class of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear systems with uncertainty in the systems dynamics and control distribution gain. The proposed adaptive SMC does not require any a priori knowledge of the uncertainty bounds and therefore offers significant advantages over the non-adaptive schemes of SMC design. The closed loop stability conditions are derived based on Lyapunov theory. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated via simulations considering an example of a two-link robot manipulator and has been found to be satisfactory.     

Launch vehicle attitude control using sliding mode control and observation techniques

In determining flight controls for launch vehicle systems, several uncertain factors must be taken into account, including a variety of payloads, a wide range of flight conditions and different mission profiles, wind disturbances and plant uncertainties. Crewed vehicles must adhere to human rating requirements, which limit the angular rates. Sliding mode control algorithms that are inherently robust to external disturbances and plant uncertainties are very good candidates for improving the robustness and accuracy of the flight control systems. Recently emerging Higher Order Sliding Mode (HOSM) control is even more powerful than the classical Sliding Mode Controls (SMC), including the capability to handle systems with arbitrary relative degree. This paper proposes sliding mode launch vehicle flight controls using classical SMC driven by the sliding mode disturbance observer (SMDO) and higher-order multiple and single loop designs. A case study on the SLV-X Launch Vehicle studied under a joint DARPA/Air Force program called the Force Application and Launch from CONtinental United States (FALCON) program is shown. The intensive simulations demonstrate efficacy of the proposed HOSM and SMC-SMDO control algorithms for launch vehicle attitude control.     

Precise robust motion tracking of a piezoactuated micropuncture mechanism with sliding mode control

This paper proposes a novel model-based control scheme to achieve the precise robust motion control of a piezoactuated micropuncture mechanism for cell injection. Using the Bouc–Wen model, the hysteretic dynamic model of the micropuncture mechanism is constructed, and its local optimization is conducted to facilitate engineering applications. On the basis of this model, a controller that synthesizes a fast nonsingular terminal sliding mode (FNTSM) control and time-delay estimation (TDE) is constructed. The control law for FNTSM has the advantages of continuous output, absence of chatter, and finite-time convergence of tracking error. The unknown quantity for TDE technology can be estimated and compensated online to reduce the FNTSM gain. Experiments on the micropuncture mechanism demonstrate that the developed control scheme provides smaller tracking error than the delay-control strategy based on the linear-error dynamic model or the model-free control scheme (e.g., Jin and Hsia’s controller). Micropuncture experiments on zebrafish embryo are successfully completed. Moreover, from the practical aspects, the control scheme developed herein can be effectively implemented in other types of micro-operation mechanisms driven by piezoelectric actuators.     

Adaptive single input sliding mode control for hybrid-synchronization of uncertain hyperchaotic Lu systems

This paper addresses the problem of hybrid synchronization for hyperchaotic Lu systems without and with uncertain parameters via a single input sliding mode controller (SMC). Based on the SMC approach, the proposed controller not only minimizes the influence of uncertainty but also enhances the robustness of the system. The uncertain parameters are estimated by using new adaptation laws which ensure the uncertain parameters convergence to their original value. A hybrid synchronization scheme is useful to maintain the vastly secured and secrecy in the area of secure communication by using the control theory approach. The proposed hybrid synchronization results are providing a superiority of forming a chaotic secure communication scheme. Finally, a numerical example is provided to demonstrate the validity of the theoretical analysis.     

Active fault tolerant control design for reusable launch vehicle using adaptive sliding mode technique

In this paper, the problem of active fault tolerant control for a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) with actuator fault using both adaptive and sliding mode techniques is investigated. Firstly, the kinematic equations and dynamic equations of RLV are given, which represent the characteristics of RLV in reentry flight phase. For the dynamic model of RLV in faulty case, a fault detection scheme is proposed by designing a nonlinear fault detection observer. Then, an active fault tolerant tracking strategy for RLV attitude control systems is presented by making use of both adaptive control and sliding mode control techniques, which can guarantee the asymptotic output tracking of the closed-loop attitude control systems in spite of actuator fault. Finally, simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed fault tolerant control scheme.     

Global exact tracking for uncertain MIMO linear systems by output feedback sliding mode control

This paper presents a solution to the problem of global exact output tracking for uncertain MIMO (multiple-input–multiple-output) linear plants with non-uniform arbitrary relative degree using output feedback sliding mode control. The key idea to overcome the relative degree obstacle is to generalize our previous hybrid estimation scheme to a multivariable version by combining, through switching, a standard linear lead filter with a non-linear one based on robust exact differentiators, achieving uniform global exponential practical stability and exact tracking.     

Trajectory tracking for a quadrotor under wind perturbations: sliding mode control with state-dependent gains

The problem of position tracking of a mini drone subject to wind perturbations is investigated. The solution is based on a detailed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) model, with aerodynamic coefficients and external disturbance components, which is introduced in order to better represent the impact of the wind field. Then, upper bounds of wind-induced disturbances are characterized, which allow a sliding mode control (SMC) technique to be applied with guaranteed convergence properties. The peculiarity of the considered case is that the disturbance upper bounds depend on the control amplitude itself (i.e. the system is nonlinear in control), which leads to a new procedure for the control tuning presented in the paper. The last part of the paper is dedicated to the analysis and reduction of chattering effects, as well as investigation of rotor dynamics issues. Conventional SMC with constant gains, proposed first order SMC, and proposed quasi-continuous SMC are compared. Nonlinear UAV simulator, validated through in-door experiments, is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controls.     

Path tracking of unmanned agricultural tractors based on a novel adaptive second-order sliding mode control

Unmanned tractors are widely adopted in agricultural operations as autonomous driving technology progresses. The current path tracking control methods are limited by the unstructured farmland, the accuracy and anti-interference ability needed to be improved. This paper presents a novel adaptive second-order sliding mode (ASOSM) control method to tackle the aforementioned problems in practical implementation. First, we introduce a preview lateral offset model based on the preview kinematic and tractor dynamic model, which helps solve the under-actuated problem in path tracking. Then, the ASOSM controller is designed using the revamped adding a power integrator (API) and adaptive mechanism, which ensures that the sliding variable is converged to zero within the finite time. Meanwhile, the chattering problem in traditional sliding mode control is relieved. Finally, a high-fidelity and full-car model is established under Simulink/Carsim environment, and comparative simulations conrm the superiority of the designed control method.