A fast terminal sliding mode control scheme with time-varying sliding mode surfaces

This paper proposes a novel fast terminal sliding mode (FTSM) control scheme, which accelerates convergence of the controlled system both in its approaching and after reaching the sliding manifold. The novelty lies in the design of time-varying sliding surface without a priori knowledge of the initial system states, so achieving insensitivity to the uncertainty of the initial states. Based on this, we design a corresponding FTSM control strategy, where the singularity problem of conventional terminal sliding mode (TSM) control systems is overcome by restricting the TSM surfaces to non-singular areas. We prove stability and finite-time convergence of the system with the proposed controller. Furthermore, we extend the proposed FTSM control scheme to high-order systems and discuss its application in practical systems. Preliminary simulation results and comparative studies demonstrate the validity of the proposed FTSM control scheme with the designed sliding surface.     

Barrier function-based nonsingular prescribed performance terminal sliding mode tracker for under-actuated nonlinear systems: Experimental study

In this paper, an adaptive concave barrier function scheme coupled with the non-singular terminal sliding mode control technique is proposed for finite-time tracking control of the under-actuated nonlinear system in the existence of model uncertainty, external disturbance and input saturation. Firstly, the dynamical equation of under-actuated nonlinear n-order system is expressed under model uncertainty, external disturbance and input saturation. Secondly, for the improvement of stability performance of the system in the existence of input saturation, a compensation system is designed to overcome the constraint on the control input. Afterward, the tracking errors between actual states of the system and differentiable reference signals are defined and the sliding surface based on the defined tracking errors is presented. Then, for gaining the better transient and steady-state performance of the closed-loop system, the prescribed performance control scheme is adopted. Based on this method, the transformed prescribed form of the previous determined sliding surface is obtained to ensure that the sliding surface can reach to a predefined region. Afterward, for assurance of the finite-time reachability of transformed sliding surface, the nonsingular terminal sliding surface is recommended. In addition, for the compensation of the model uncertainty and external disturbance existed in the system, the adaptive-based concave barrier function technique is used to estimate the unknown bounds of uncertainty and exterior disturbance. Finally, for demonstration of the proposed control method, the simulations and experimental implementation are done on the air levitation system.     

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.     

Fixed-time stable bilateral teleoperation of underwater manipulator using prescribed performance terminal sliding surfaces

This study proposes two novel prescribed performance terminal sliding surfaces (PPTSSs) to address the fixed time stable bilateral teleoperation issue for a class of underwater manipulators with error constraints and input saturation. A general mathematical definition of the PPTSS method is first introduced, which can predetermine the convergence rate, steady-state error, and maximum overshoot. Moreover, the system settling time would have a fixed upper bound once the PPTSS is reached. An auxiliary system for saturation compensation is utilized to overcome the difficulties caused by actuator saturation. Moreover, two control schemes based on PPTSSs are proposed to handle error constraints and ensure the bound of global settling time is fixed. Finally, numerical simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed algorithms.     

Dual terminal sliding mode control design for rigid robotic manipulator

This paper proposes a dual terminal sliding mode control scheme for tracking tasks of rigid robotic manipulators. As a significant novelty, the presented design technique integrates the individual sliding mode surfaces to achieve the finite time convergence of tracking errors utilizing specially designed construct, and accordingly the convergence time is easily obtained due to the integral design. The underactuated issue and input limitation are specially considered in this paper, i.e., the underactuated issue is solved by introducing the hierarchical methodology into the basic dual sliding mode controller. The proposed method can easily combine with the adaptive technique to eliminate the negative effect caused by the input limitation in the rigorous stability analysis. These newly proposed methods also have the characteristics of nonsingularity and chattering suppression, and the effectiveness and high efficiency are verified by stabilizing the motions of the overhead crane and the tracking tasks of the rigid robotic manipulator. Simulation results validate the theoretical analyses about the proposed method.     

Distributed fuzzy learning sliding mode cooperative control for non-affine nonlinear multi-missile guidance systems via a prescribed performance observer

This paper focuses on the distributed fuzzy learning sliding mode cooperative control issue for non-affine nonlinear multi-missile guidance systems. The dynamics of each follower is non-affine form with unknown lumped factor. To estimate the unknown lumped factor, a generalized fuzzy hyperbolic model (GFHM) based prescribed performance observer (PPO) is proposed. Different from the traditional disturbance observers, a residual set of error transient behavior is incorporated additionally so that the peak phenomenon can be avoided. Meanwhile, an auxiliary system is employed to convert the system of each follower to augmented affine form. Then, a distributed fuzzy learning sliding mode cooperative control approach is designed which consists of two parts. The adaptive sliding mode control (SMC) part is designed to force the states to move along the predefined integral sliding surface. For the equivalent sliding dynamics, the distributed optimal control part with GFHM is developed to minimize the cooperative performance function. Thus, the stability and the optimality of the closed-loop system are guaranteed synchronously. Finally, all signals of closed-loop system are rigorously proved bounded and the multi-missile cooperative guidance scenario is applied to verify the effectiveness of proposed method.     

Synchronization of second-order chaotic systems via adaptive terminal sliding mode control with input nonlinearity

In the presence of system uncertainties, external disturbances and input nonlinearity, this paper is concerned with the adaptive terminal sliding mode controller to achieve synchronization between two identical attractors which belong to a class of second-order chaotic system. The proposed controller with adaptive feedback gains can compensate nonlinear dynamics of the synchronous error system without calculating the magnitudes of them. Meanwhile, these feedback gains are updated by the novel adaptive rules without required that the bounds of system uncertainties and external disturbances have to be known in advance. Some sufficient conditions for stability are provided based on the Lyapunov theorem and numerical studies are performed to verify the effectiveness of presented scheme.     

Observer-based terminal sliding mode control of non-affine nonlinear systems: Finite-time approach

This paper studies the problem of observer based fast nonsingular terminal sliding mode control schemes for nonlinear non-affine systems with actuator faults, unknown states, and external disturbances. A hyperbolic tangent function based extended state observer is considered to estimate unknown states, which enhances robustness by estimating external disturbance. Then, Taylor series expansion is employed for the non-affine nonlinear system with actuator faults, which transforms it to an affine form system to simplify disturbance observer and controller design. A finite time disturbance observer is designed to address unknown compound disturbances, which includes external disturbances and system uncertainties. A fast nonsingular terminal sliding mode with exponential function sliding mode is proposed to address output tracking. Simulation results show the proposed scheme is effective.     

Observer-based sliding mode control for a class of discrete systems via delta operator approach

In this paper, an observer-based sliding mode control (SMC) problem is investigated for a class of uncertain delta operator systems with nonlinear exogenous disturbance. A novel robust stability condition is obtained for a sliding mode dynamics by using Lyapunov theory in delta domain. Based on a designed sliding mode observer, a sliding mode controller is synthesized by employing SMC theory combined with reaching law technique. The robust asymptotical stability problem is also discussed for the closed-loop system composed of the observer dynamics and the state estimation error dynamics. Furthermore, the reachability of sliding surfaces is also investigated in state-estimate space and estimation error space, respectively. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the developed method.     

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.     

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.     

N-sigma stability of stochastic systems with sliding mode control

In this paper, sliding mode control for discrete time systems with stochastic noise in their input channel has been discussed. The idea of process control using control charts has influenced this new approach towards dealing with systems with stochastic noise. The new approach approximates the stochastic noise as a bounded uncertainty, similar to having bounds in the control charts for stochastic process control data. For discrete time systems, this results in a bounded stability in probability of the quasi sliding mode, which is referred to as the N-sigma bounded stability. The probability associated with the stability notions is not fixed and the control engineer may desire lower or higher degrees of stability in terms of this probability. Thus one has design flexibility while implementing the theory in practice, where one might have to adjust the desired degree of stability due to hardware limitations.     

Enhanced continuous higher order sliding mode control with adaptation

This paper proposes a new Continuous Adaptive HOSM control algorithm. The key advantage of the adaption scheme is that it does not require knowledge of the bounds on the matched uncertainty, and the gains themselves are not conservatively overestimated by the adaption scheme – which helps mitigate the problem of chattering. Compared with earlier work, two variable parameters are allowed to adapt and this facilitates much better self-tuning capabilities and improved closed-loop performance.     

Adaptive second order terminal sliding mode controller for robotic manipulators

In this paper an adaptive second order terminal sliding mode (SOTSM) controller is proposed for controlling robotic manipulators. Instead of the normal control input, its time derivative is used in the proposed controller. The discontinuous sign function is contained in the derivative control and the actual control obtained after integration is continuous and hence chatterless. An adaptive tuning method is utilized to deal with the system uncertainties whose upper bounds are not required to be known in advance. The performance of the proposed control strategy is evaluated through the control of a two-link rigid robotic manipulator. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control method.     

Reachable set control for singular systems with disturbance via sliding mode control

The problem of the reachable set (RS) control of sliding mode control (SMC) for a class of singular systems with or without time-varying delay under zero initial conditions is studied. The purpose is to get an RS boundary containing all states of the system by designing an SMC. Firstly, singular systems with or without time-varying delay are decomposed into slow and fast subsystems by using the decomposition approach. Then, the augmented Lyapunov functional is built utilizing the decomposed state vector. The SMC is designed based on the exponential reaching criterion, resulting in the corresponding closed-loop control system (CLCS) construction. As a consequence, an RS criterion is constructed by employing the inequality scaling approach and the free-weighting matrix in conjunction with the linear matrix inequality (LMI). Finally, the validity and primacy of the results are provided by two numerical and practical examples.     

Observer-based discrete-time sliding mode control for systems with unmatched uncertainties

This paper addresses an observer-based sliding mode control (SMC) approach for discrete-time systems with unmatched uncertainties. A modified sliding surface based on disturbance estimation and a sliding mode controller are designed to counteract with the unmatched disturbance. The proposed method exhibits the following three features. First, the hyperplane matrix is designed in a simple way based on the discrete-time Riccati equation. Second, a chattering-free SMC method is utilized. Third, the proposed approach retains the nominal performance of the system. The stability of the overall system is achieved and simulation results are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Prescribed-time containment control with prescribed performance for uncertain nonlinear multi-agent systems

The existing studies on prescribed-time control cannot directly deal with nonlinear functions which don’t satisfy Lipschitz growth conditions. No results are available for prescribed-time containment control of pure-feedback UNMASs with prescribed performance. Therefore, completely unknown nonlinear function, prescribed-time tracking of system states and prescribed performance of containment errors are simultaneously considered in this paper. Fuzzy logic systems are utilized to approximate completely unknown nonlinear function. Prescribed-performance function is introduced and further incorporated into a novel speed function. Combining the proposed speed function and barrier Lyapunov function, this article presents a novel adaptive fuzzy prescribed-time containment control method which can guarantee, under prescribed performance, all followers converge to a convex formed by dynamic leaders in a prescribed time. Moreover, all tracking errors converge to predefined regions in a prescribed time. The effectiveness of the proposed prescribed-time containment control method are confirmed by strict proof and simulation.     

Natural surface design for sliding mode control with multiple discontinuous inputs

It is well known that sliding mode control is based on the definition of an invariant manifold, where the system dynamics are forced to in a finite time. Such a manifold is somewhat arbitrarily defined, as long as the system dynamics are stable on it. Computational and control effort may vary depending on selected manifold. Obviously, if a system has naturally acceptable stable dynamics around a desired equilibrium point, no control is needed unless uncertainties or disturbances are present. It would be desirable that if such a system had uncertainties or disturbances, the control effort be designed only to overcome the effect of such factors. For a system with first order dynamics and affine control input, designing a sliding mode control overcoming only such uncertainties or disturbances is a trivial task. When a higher order dynamics system is involved, unit control may be used, where the input control signals are not discontinuous, but when only discontinuous control inputs are available, a design approach is not readily available. In this paper, taking advantage of the natural stable dynamics of a system, a sliding mode control approach is introduced for designing multiple discontinuous control inputs, where the control effort overcomes only uncertainties, disturbances or unstable dynamics. Two illustrative examples are given in order to show the feasibility of the method.