Robust output tracking of uncertain nonlinear time‐delay systems with unknown dead‐zone inputs via control schemes with a simple structure

The adaptive robust output tracking control problem is considered for a class of uncertain nonlinear time‐delay systems with completely unknown dead‐zone inputs. A new design method is proposed so that some adaptive robust output tracking control schemes with a rather simple structure can be constructed. It is not necessary to know the nonlinear upper bound functions of uncertain nonlinearities. In fact, the constructed output tracking control schemes are structurally linear in the state and have a self‐tuning control gain function that is updated by an adaptation law. In this paper, the dead‐zone input is nonsymmetric, and its information is assumed to be completely unknown. In addition, a numerical example is given to describe the design procedure of the presented method, and the simulations of this numerical example are implemented to demonstrate the validity of the theoretical results.