Adaptive controller design with prescribed performance for switched nonstrict feedback nonlinear systems with actuator failures

This article is concerned with the adaptive output-feedback control of switched nonstrict feedback nonlinear systems. By introducing a novel error surface, an adaptive control strategy is proposed for the general case where the nonlinear functions and the control gain functions are unknown, and the states are unmeasurable. The considered switched nonlinear system contains unknown actuator failures, which are modeled as both loss of effectiveness and lock-in-place. In order to improve the transient performance in the presence of unknown actuator failures, the prescribed performance approach is used. The “explosion of complexity” problem is avoided through using low-pass filters. The stability of the closed-loop system under arbitrary switching is shown using Lyapunov stability theory, based on which, the tracking error is shown to converge to a small residual set with the prescribed performance bounds. The advantages of the proposed technique are verified through simulations of two numerical and practical examples.