Adaptive robust output tracking of uncertain strict-feedback nonlinear time-delay systems via control schemes with simple structure

The output tracking control problem is considered for a class of uncertain strict-feedback nonlinear systems with time-varying delays. In the paper, the time-varying delays are assumed to be any non-negative continuous and bounded functions, and it is not necessary for their derivatives to be less than one. It is also assumed that the upper bounds of nonlinear delayed state perturbations and external disturbances are unknown. On the basis of backstepping algorithm, a novel design method is proposed by which some simple adaptive robust output tracking control schemes are synthesised. The proposed design method can avoid the repeated differentiation problem which appears in using the conventional backstepping algorithm, and need not know all the nonlinear upper bound functions of uncertainties, which are repeatedly employed at each step of the backstepping algorithm. In particular, it is not necessary to know any information on the time-varying delays to construct our simple output tracking control schemes. It is also shown that the tracking error can converge uniformly exponentially towards a neighbourhood of the origin. Finally, a numerical example and its simulations are provided to demonstrate the design procedure of the simple method proposed in the paper.