Two‐stage stability control for strict‐feedback systems with input delays and input nonlinear uncertainties

In this paper, a two‐stage control procedure is proposed for stabilization of a class of strict‐feedback systems with unknown constant time delays and nonlinear uncertainties in the input. A nominal controller is first designed to compensate input time delays without considering input nonlinear uncertainties. Extended from backstepping algorithm, input delay compensation is realized by means of predicted states that are computed through integration of cascaded system dynamics, making the nominal closed‐loop system asymptotically stable. Based on the nominal controller presented for the input delay system, a multi‐timescale system is subsequently developed to estimate the unknown input nonlinearity and make the estimate approach the nominal control input as fast as possible. It is proved that the proposed control scheme can make states of the strict‐feedback systems converge to zero and all the signals of the closed‐loop systems are guaranteed to be bounded in the presence of input time delays and nonlinear uncertainties. Simulation verification is carried out to illuminate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.     

Razumikhin–Nussbaum‐lemma‐based adaptive neural control for uncertain stochastic pure‐feedback nonlinear systems with time‐varying delays

This paper addresses the problem of adaptive neural control for a class of uncertain stochastic pure‐feedback nonlinear systems with time‐varying delays. Major technical difficulties for this class of systems lie in: (1) the unknown control direction embedded in the unknown control gain function; and (2) the unknown system functions with unknown time‐varying delays. Based on a novel combination of the Razumikhin–Nussbaum lemma, the backstepping technique and the NN parameterization, an adaptive neural control scheme, which contains only one adaptive parameter is presented for this class of systems. All closed‐loop signals are shown to be 4‐Moment semi‐globally uniformly ultimately bounded in a compact set, and the tracking error converges to a small neighborhood of the origin. Finally, two simulation examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust control of uncertain nonlinear systems with state delays based on an uncertainty and disturbance estimator

In this article, one linear and one nonlinear robust control strategies are proposed for uncertain nonlinear continuous‐time systems with disturbances and state delays. The approaches are based on the uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE) introduced in 2004. In the case of a linear controller, the terms containing the nonlinear functions and time delays are treated as additional disturbances to the system. In the case of a nonlinear controller, both known and unknown delay scenarios are considered. In the case of an unknown time delay, the terms containing the delay are treated as additional disturbances to the system. The algorithms provide excellent tracking and disturbance rejection performance. Simulations are given to show the effectiveness of the strategies, first via a simple example and second via an application to a continuous stirred tank reactor system. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Robust‐decentralized tracking control for a class of uncertain MIMO nonlinear systems with time‐varying delays

A new control design method based on signal compensation is proposed for a class of uncertain multi‐input multi‐output (MIMO) nonlinear systems in block‐triangular form with nonlinear uncertainties, unknown virtual control coefficients, strongly coupled interconnections, time‐varying delays, and external disturbances. By this method, the controller design is performed in a backstepping manner. At each step of backstepping procedure, a nominal virtual controller is first designed to get desired output tracking for the nominal disturbance‐free subsystem, and then a robust virtual compensator is designed to restrain the effect of the uncertainties, delays involved in the subsystem, and the couplings among the subsystems. The designed controller is linear and time‐invariant, so the explosion of complexity in the control law is avoid. It is proved that robust stability and robust practical tracking property of the closed‐loop system can be ensured, and the tracking errors can be made as small as desired. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive Neural Dynamic Surface Control For Nonlinear Pure‐Feedback Systems With Multiple Time‐Varying Delays: A Lyapunov‐Razumikhin Method

This paper focuses on the problem of adaptive neural control for a class of uncertain nonlinear pure‐feedback systems with multiple unknown time‐varying delays. The considered problem is challenging due to the non‐affine pure‐feedback form and the unknown system functions with multiple unknown time‐varying delays. Based on a novel combination of mean value theorem, Razumikhin functional method, dynamic surface control (DSC) technique and neural network (NN) parameterization, a new adaptive neural controller which contains only one parameter is developed for such systems. Moreover, The DSC technique can overcome the problem of ‘explosion of complexity’ in the traditional backstepping design procedure. All closed‐loop signals are shown to be semi‐globally uniformly ultimately bounded, and the tracking error converges to a small neighborhood of the origin. Two simulation examples are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed design.     

Robust adaptive control of nonlinear systems with unknown time delays

In this paper, robust adaptive control is presented for a class of parametric-strict-feedback nonlinear systems with unknown time delays. Using appropriate Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals, the uncertainties of unknown time delays are compensated for. Controller singularity problems are solved by employing practical robust control and regrouping unknown parameters. By using differentiable approximation, backstepping design can be carried out for a class of nonlinear systems in strict-feedback form. It is proved that the proposed systematic backstepping design method is able to guarantee global uniform ultimate boundedness of all the signals in the closed-loop system and the tracking error is proven to converge to a small neighborhood of the origin. Simulation results are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Tuning functions‐based robust adaptive tracking control of a class of nonlinear systems with time delays

In this paper, an adaptive backstepping tracking control scheme is proposed for a class of nonlinear state time‐varying delay systems, which are subject to parametric uncertainties and external disturbances. The bounds of the time delays and their derivatives are assumed to be unknown. Tuning functions method is exploited to construct the control law and adaptive laws. Unknown time‐varying delays are compensated by using appropriate Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional. It is shown that the proposed controller can guarantee the boundedness of all the closed‐loop signals. The tracking performance can be adjusted by choosing suitable design parameters. At the end, a simulation example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the design procedure. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Design of Adaptive Block Backstepping Controllers with Perturbations Estimation for Nonlinear State‐Delayed Systems in Semi‐Strict Feedback Form

This paper is an extended study of an existing block backstepping control scheme designed for a class of perturbed multi‐input systems with multiple time‐varying delays to solve regulation problems, where the time‐varying delays must be linear with state variables. A new control scheme is proposed in this research where all the unknown multiple time‐varying delay terms in the dynamic equations can be nonlinear state functions in non‐strict feedback form, and the upper bounds of the time‐delays as well as their derivatives need not to be known in advance. Another improvement is to further alleviate the problem of “explosion of complexity,” i.e., to reduce the number of time derivatives of virtual inputs that the designers have to compute in the design of controllers. This is done by utilizing an existent derivative estimation algorithm to estimate the perturbations in the designing of proposed controllers. Adaptive mechanisms are also embedded in the controllers so that the upper bounds of perturbations and perturbation estimation errors are not required to be known beforehand. The resultant controlled systems guarantee asymptotic stability in accordance with the Lyapunov stability theorem. Finally, a numerical example and a practical application are demonstrated to verify the merits and feasibility of the proposed control scheme.     

High‐gain nonlinear observer‐based impedance control for deformable object cooperative teleoperation with nonlinear contact model

Unmeasurable object deformation and local communication time delays between the slave robots influence the manipulation effect for multirobot multioperator teleoperation. In this article, a distributed control method based on high‐gain nonlinear observer, interactive identification, and impedance control is proposed for this problem. First, we use Hunt‐Crossley contact model and deduce the desired synchronizing object state in cooperative teleoperation. Second, an impedance item expressed by the internal position errors is presented to decrease object position tracking errors. For the unmeasurable object deformation, an interactive identification method is proposed for estimating unknown variables. Third, we consider both varying communication time delays and local time delays in the slave side. Two mirror high‐gain nonlinear observers are designed for estimating other slave robots' real‐time state. Finally, we build the system controllers and prove the stability of the closed‐loop system and the boundless of estimating errors using Lyapunov functions. Comparable simulation results executed by the physical system present that the position and internal force tracking errors of the object decrease in the designated cooperative tasks.     

Delay‐range‐dependent control of nonlinear time‐delay systems under input saturation

This paper describes a delay‐range‐dependent local state feedback controller synthesis approach providing estimation of the region of stability for nonlinear time‐delay systems under input saturation. By employing a Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional, properties of nonlinear functions, local sector condition and Jensen's inequality, a sufficient condition is derived for stabilization of nonlinear systems with interval delays varying within a range. Novel solutions to the delay‐range‐dependent and delay‐dependent stabilization problems for linear and nonlinear time‐delay systems, respectively, subject to input saturation are derived as specific scenarios of the proposed control strategy. Also, a delay‐rate‐independent condition for control of nonlinear systems in the presence of input saturation with unknown delay‐derivative bound information is established. And further, a robust state feedback controller synthesis scheme ensuring L₂ gain reduction from disturbance to output is devised to address the problem of the stabilization of input‐constrained nonlinear time‐delay systems with varying interval lags. The proposed design conditions can be solved using linear matrix inequality tools in connection with conventional cone complementary linearization algorithms. Simulation results for an unstable nonlinear time‐delay network and a large‐scale chemical reactor under input saturation and varying interval time‐delays are analyzed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global adaptive stabilization for high‐order uncertain time‐varying nonlinear systems with time‐delays

This paper focuses on the adaptive stabilization problem for a class of high‐order nonlinear systems with time‐varying uncertainties and unknown time‐delays. Time‐varying uncertain parameters are compensated by combining a function gain with traditional adaptive technique, and unknown multiple time‐delays are manipulated by the delicate choice of an appropriate Lyapunov function. With the help of homogeneous domination idea and recursive design, a continuous adaptive state‐feedback controller is designed to guarantee that resulting closed‐loop systems are globally uniformly stable and original system states converge to zero. The effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is illustrated by the stabilization of delayed neural network systems. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive neural control for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with unknown time delay

A neural network (NN)‐based robust adaptive control design scheme is developed for a class of nonlinear systems represented by input–output models with an unknown nonlinear function and unknown time delay. By approximating on‐line the unknown nonlinear functions with a three‐layer feedforward NN, the proposed approach does not require the unknown parameters to satisfy the linear dependence condition. The control law is delay independent and possible controller singularity problem is avoided. It is proved that with the proposed neural control law, all the signals in the closed‐loop system are semiglobally bounded in the presence of unknown time delay and unknown nonlinearity. A simulation example is presented to demonstrate the method. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global tracking of nonlinear systems with simultaneous unknown time‐varying state and input delays

This paper presents the design of a robust control law for a class of nonlinear dynamical systems subjected to parametric uncertainty and simultaneous unknown, variable state and input delays. A novel controller is developed, which consists of a filtered tracking error and the integral of previous values of control input where the limits of integration are dependent on the known bound of the input delay. Lyapunov‐Krasovskii functionals–based stability analysis guarantees a global uniformly ultimately bounded tracking result where sufficient conditions on controller gains and maximum allowable delay are derived. The performance and robustness of the controller are evaluated by simulation on a two‐link robot manipulator for different combinations of time‐varying state and input delays.     

Fuzzy adaptive output feedback control for a class of switched non-triangular structure nonlinear systems with time-varying delays

This paper investigates an adaptive fuzzy output feedback control design problem for switched nonlinear system in non-triangular structure form. The discussed system contains unknown nonlinear dynamics, unmeasured states and unknown time-varying delays under a batch of switching signals. Fuzzy logic systems are utilised to learn unknown nonlinear dynamics and construct a fuzzy switched nonlinear observer. By combining the property of fuzzy basis function with Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional and the command filter, a novel observer-based fuzzy adaptive backstepping schematic design algorithm is presented. Furthermore, the stability of the closed-loop control system is proved via Lyapunov stability theory and average dwell time method. The simulation results are presented to verify the validity of the proposed control scheme.     

Synchronized adaptive control for coordinating manipulators with time‐varying actuator constraint and uncertain dynamics

This paper addresses the control issue for cooperative visual servoing manipulators on strongly connected graph with communication delays, in which case that the uncertain robot dynamics and kinematics, uncalibrated camera model, and actuator constraint are simultaneously considered. An adaptive cooperative image‐based approach is established to overcome the control difficulty arising from nonlinear coupling between visual model and robot agents. To estimate the coupled camera‐robot parameters, a novel adaptive strategy is developed and its superiority mainly lies in the containment of both individual image‐space errors and the synchronous errors among networked robots; thus, the cooperative performance is significantly strengthened. Moreover, the proposed cooperative controller with a Nussbaum‐type gain is implemented to both globally stabilize the closed‐loop systems and realize the synchronization control objective under the existence of unknown and time‐varying actuator constraint. Finally, simulations are carried out to validate the developed approach.     

Adaptive fuzzy dynamic surface control for a class of perturbed nonlinear time-varying delay systems with unknown dead-zone

In this paper,adaptive dynamic surface control(DSC) is developed for a class of nonlinear systems with unknown discrete and distributed time-varying delays and unknown dead-zone.Fuzzy logic systems are used to approximate the unknown nonlinear functions.Then,by combining the backstepping technique and the appropriate Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals with the dynamic surface control approach,the adaptive fuzzy tracking controller is designed.Our development is able to eliminate the problem of "explosion of complexity" inherent in the existing backstepping-based methods.The main advantages of our approach include:1) for the n-th-order nonlinear systems,only one parameter needs to be adjusted online in the controller design procedure,which reduces the computation burden greatly.Moreover,the input of the dead-zone with only one adjusted parameter is much simpler than the ones in the existing results;2) the proposed control scheme does not need to know the time delays and their upper bounds.It is proven that the proposed design method is able to guarantee that all the signals in the closed-loop system are bounded and the tracking error is smaller than a prescribed error bound,Finally,simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

A Neural Net Predictive Control for Telerobots with Time Delay

This paper extends the Smith Predictor feedback control structure to unknown robotic systems in a rigorous fashion. A new recurrent neural net predictive control (RNNPC) strategy is proposed to deal with input and feedback time delays in telerobotic systems. The proposed control structure consists of a local linearized subsystem and a remote predictive controller. In the local linearized subsystem, a recurrent neural network (RNN) with on-line weight tuning algorithm is employed to approximate the dynamics of the time-delay-free nonlinear plant. The remote controller is a modified Smith predictor for the local linearized subsystem which provides prediction and maintains the desirable tracking performance. Stability analysis is given in the sense of Lyapunov. The result is an adaptive compensation scheme for unknown telerobotic systems with time delays, uncertainties, and external disturbances. A simulation of a two-link robotic manipulator is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.     

Error‐constrained finite‐horizon tracking control with incomplete measurements and bounded noises

This paper is concerned with the finite‐horizon tracking control problem for discrete nonlinear time‐varying systems with state delays, bounded noises and incomplete measurement output. The exogenous bounded noises are unknown and confined to specified ellipsoidal sets. A deterministic measurement output model is proposed to account for the incomplete data transmission phenomenon caused by possible sensor aging or failures. The aim of the addressed tracking control problem is to develop an observer‐based control over a finite‐horizon such that, for the admissible time delays, nonlinearities and bounded noises, both the quadratic tracking error and the estimation error are not more than certain upper bounds that are minimized at every time step. A recursive linear matrix inequality approach is used to solve the problem addressed. The observer and controller parameters are characterized in terms of the solution to a convex optimization problem that can be easily solved by using the semi‐definite programme method. A simulation example is exploited to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design procedures. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive robust stabilisation for a class of uncertain nonlinear time-delay dynamical systems

The problem of adaptive robust stabilisation is considered for a class of uncertain nonlinear dynamical systems with multiple time-varying delays. It is assumed that the upper bounds of the nonlinear delayed state perturbations are unknown and that the time-varying delays are any non-negative continuous and bounded functions which do not require that their derivatives have to be less than one. In particular, it is only required that the nonlinear uncertainties, which can also include time-varying delays, are bounded in any non-negative nonlinear functions which are not required to be known for the system designer. For such a class of uncertain nonlinear time-delay systems, a new method is presented whereby a class of continuous memoryless adaptive robust state feedback controllers with a rather simpler structure is proposed. It is also shown that the solutions of uncertain nonlinear time-delay systems can be guaranteed to be uniformly exponentially convergent towards a ball which can be as small as desired. Finally, as an application, an uncertain nonlinear time-delay ecosystem with two competing species is given to demonstrate the validity of the results.     

Adaptive Robust Output Tracking Control of Uncertain Nonlinear Cascade Systems with Disturbance and Multiple Unknown Time‐Varying Delays

In this paper, an adaptive robust controller is designed for a class of uncertain nonlinear cascade systems with multiple time‐varying delays under external disturbance. It is assumed that multiple time‐varying delays are not exactly known and, therefore, the delayed terms must not appear in the adaptation and control laws. Accordingly, by using a Lyapunov‐Krasovskii function, delays are deleted from the adaptation and control laws. A controller based on an adaptive backstepping approach is designed to assure the global asymptotic tracking of the desired output and boundedness of the other states. The proposed controller is proved to be robust against unknown time‐varying delays and external disturbances applying to the system. Simulation results are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.