Search Results (19)

High-speed aircraft actuators are critical for precise control of aerodynamic surfaces, demanding fast response, accuracy, and robustness against uncertainties and disturbances. However, the complex nonlinear dynamics of these systems pose significant challenges for conventional control methods. Sliding mode control (SMC) offers robust performance and rapid transient response but is hindered by chattering, which can degrade performance. To address this, this paper proposes an innovative nonlinear control strategy that integrates global nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (NTSMC) for finite-time convergence with fuzzy logic-based adaptive gain tuning to mitigate chattering and suppress oscillations. A prototype actuator and experimental platform were developed to validate the approach. Experimental results demonstrate superior dynamic response and disturbance rejection compared to traditional methods, highlighting the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. Full article

This study proposes a novel fuzzy disturbance observer (FDO)-augmented adaptive nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (NTSMC) framework for multi-joint robotic manipulators, addressing critical challenges in trajectory tracking precision and disturbance rejection. Unlike conventional disturbance observers requiring prior knowledge of disturbance bounds, the proposed FDO leverages fuzzy logic principles to dynamically estimate composite disturbances—including unmodeled dynamics, parameter perturbations, and external torque variations—without restrictive assumptions about disturbance derivatives. The control architecture achieves rapid finite-time convergence by integrating the FDO with a singularity-free terminal sliding manifold and an adaptive exponential reaching law while significantly suppressing chattering effects. Rigorous Lyapunov stability analysis confirms the uniform ultimate boundedness of tracking errors and disturbance estimation residuals. Comparative simulations on a 2-DOF robotic arm demonstrate a 97.28% reduction in root mean square tracking errors compared to PD-based alternatives and a 73.73% improvement over a nonlinear disturbance observer-enhanced NTSMC. Experimental validation on a physical three-joint manipulator platform reveals that the proposed method reduces torque oscillations by 58% under step-type disturbances while maintaining sub-millimeter tracking accuracy. The framework eliminates reliance on exact system models, offering a generalized solution for industrial manipulators operating under complex dynamic uncertainties. Full article

This paper introduces a novel model-free nonsingular fixed-time sliding mode control (MF-NFxTSMC) strategy for precise trajectory tracking in robot arm systems. Unlike conventional sliding mode control (SMC) approaches that require accurate dynamic models, the proposed method leverages the time delay estimation (TDE) approach to effectively estimate system dynamics and external disturbances in real-time, enabling a fully model-free control solution. This significantly enhances its practicality in real-world scenarios where obtaining precise models is challenging or infeasible. A significant innovation of this work lies in designing a novel fixed-time control framework that achieves faster convergence than traditional fixed-time methods. Building on this, a novel MF-NFxTSMC law is developed, featuring a novel singularity-free fixed-time sliding surface (SF-FxTSS) and a novel fixed-time reaching law (FxTRL). The proposed SF-FxTSS incorporates a dynamic proportional term and an adaptive exponent, ensuring rapid convergence and robust tracking. Notably, its smooth transition between nonlinear and linear dynamics eliminates the singularities often encountered in terminal and fixed-time sliding mode surfaces. Additionally, the designed FxTRL effectively suppresses chattering while guaranteeing fixed-time convergence, leading to smoother control actions and reduced mechanical stress on the robotic hardware. The fixed-time stability of the proposed method is rigorously proven using the Lyapunov theory. Numerical simulations on the SAMSUNG FARA AT2 robotic platform demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method in terms of tracking accuracy, convergence speed, and control smoothness compared to existing strategies, including conventional SMC, finite-time SMC, approximate fixed-time SMC, and global fixed-time nonsingular terminal SMC (NTSMC). Overall, this approach offers compelling advantages, i.e., model-free implementation, fixed-time convergence, singularity avoidance, and reduced chattering, making it a practical and scalable solution for high-performance control in uncertain robotic systems. Full article

Manipulator systems are increasingly deployed across various industries to perform complex, repetitive, and hazardous tasks, necessitating high-precision control for optimal performance. However, the design of effective control algorithms is challenged by nonlinearities, uncertain dynamics, disturbances, and varying real-world conditions. To address these issues, this paper proposes an advanced orbit-tracking control approach for manipulators, leveraging advancements in Time-Delay Estimation (TDE) and Fixed-Time Sliding Mode Control techniques. The TDE approximates the robot’s unknown dynamics and uncertainties, while a novel nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode (NFTSM) surface and novel fixed-time reaching control law (FTRCL) are introduced to ensure faster convergence within a fixed time and improved accuracy without a singularity issue. Additionally, an innovative auxiliary system is designed to address input saturation effects, ensuring that system states converge to zero within a fixed time even when saturation occurs. The Lyapunov-based theory is employed to prove the fixed-time convergence of the overall system. The effectiveness of the proposed controller is validated through simulations on a 3-DOF SAMSUNG FARA AT2 robot manipulator. Comparative analyses against NTSMC, NFTSMC, and GNTSMC methods demonstrate superior performance, characterized by faster convergence, reduced chattering, higher tracking accuracy, and a model-free design. These results underscore the potential of the proposed control strategy to significantly enhance the robustness, precision, and applicability of robotic systems in industrial environments. Full article

Skid-steer mobile robots (SSMRs) are ubiquitous in indoor and outdoor applications. Their accurate trajectory tracking control is quite challenging due to the uncertainties arising from the complex behavior of frictional force, external disturbances, and fluctuations in the instantaneous center of rotation (ICR) during turning maneuvers. These uncertainties directly disturb velocities, hindering the robot from tracking the velocity command. This paper proposes a nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (NTSMC) based on backstepping for a four-wheel SSMR to cope with the aforementioned challenges. The strategy seeks to mitigate the impacts of external disturbances and model uncertainties by developing an adaptive law to estimate the integrated lumped outcome. The finite time stability of the closed-loop system is proven using Lyapunov’s theory. The designed NTSMC input is continuous and avoids noticeable chattering. It was noted in the simulation analysis that the proposed control strategy is strongly robust against disturbance and modeling uncertainties, demonstrating effective trajectory tracking performance in the presence of disturbance and modeling uncertainties. Full article

The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is the most widely used fuel cell, but it also has some limitations. One of the research pain points is controlling the oxygen content in PEMFCs. A moderate excess of oxygen boosts electrochemical reaction efficiency, while an appropriate oxygen content ensures system stability. In this paper, a fourth-order nonlinear mathematical model of a PEMFC stack air supply system is established to solve the problem of optimal oxygen excess ratio (OER) control under dynamic load conditions. Based on the model, a nonsingular terminal sliding mode controller (NTSMC) based on a sliding mode observer (SMO) is proposed. The NTSM exhibits superior robustness and performance compared to other sliding mode structures. Meanwhile, the SMO accurately predicts system states, facilitating precise control actions. Additionally, the dual sliding mode surfaces enhance system stability against parameter uncertainties and external disturbances. Our results demonstrate that the proposed controller outperforms traditional ones in terms of robustness and performance, which significantly enhances PEMFC system efficiency and stability. Full article

Platooning of vehicular systems has been considered an effective solution for alleviating traffic congestion and reducing energy consumption. Because of limitations in onboard sensors, the measurement system inevitably suffers from measurement delays and noise, yet it receives insufficient attention. In this article, to deal with the measurement delays and noise while improving convergence performance, the platoon control problem of vehicular systems is studied under the nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (NTSMC) framework. A sliding mode observer (SMO) is proposed to estimate the states affected by measurement delays and noise. A distributed NTSMC scheme is developed for the platooning of the vehicular systems and ensures the convergence of the sliding mode surface affected by measurement delays and noise. One salient feature of the proposed SMO is that it can handle time-varying measurement delays rather than constant ones. Moreover, the control law is free of initial spacing error conditions under the employed coupled spacing policy. Numerical simulations are finally provided to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm. Full article

The utilization of the Delta parallel robot in high-speed and high-precision applications has been extensive, with motion stability being a critical performance measure. To address the inherent inaccuracies of the model and minimize the impact of external disturbances on motion stability, we propose an adaptive backstepping fractional-order non-singular terminal sliding mode control (ABF-NTSMC). Initially, by employing a backstepping algorithm, we select the virtual control for subsystems as the state variable function in joint space while incorporating a calculus operator to enhance fractional-order sliding mode control (SMC). Subsequently, we describe factors such as model uncertainty and external disturbance using a lumped uncertainty function and estimate its upper bound through an adaptive control law. Ultimately, we demonstrate system stability for our proposed control approach and provide an analysis of finite convergence time. The effectiveness of this presented scheme is demonstrated through simulation and experimental research. Full article

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are now widely used in both civilian and military applications; however, wireless charging underwater often faces difficulties such as disturbances from ocean currents and errors in device positioning, making proper alignment of the charging devices challenging. Misalignment between the primary and secondary coils can significantly impact the efficiency and power of the wireless charging system energy transfer. To address the issue of misalignment in wireless charging systems, this paper proposes a multiple transfer coil wireless power transfer (MTCWPT) system based on backpropagation (BP) neural network control combined with nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (NTSMC) to enhance further the system robustness and efficiency. To achieve WPT in the ocean, a coil shielding case structure was equipped. In displacement experiments, the proposed multi-transmitting coil system could achieve stable power transfer of 40 W and efficiency of over 78.5% within a displacement range of 8 cm. The system robustness was also validated. This paper presents a new AUV energy supply solution based on MTCWPT. The proposed MTCWPT system can significantly improve the navigation performance of AUVs. Full article

In response to the issue of system oscillations in direct current (DC) microgrid systems with constant power loads (CPL), this paper proposes a non-singular terminal sliding-mode control (NTSMC) strategy based on the improved salp swarm algorithm (ISSA). Firstly, the state-feedback exact linearization technique is employed to establish a linearized model of the converter system. Then, the NTSMC based on a composite sliding-mode surface is designed to achieve rapid convergence and effectively weaken the chattering issue in traditional sliding-mode control, ensuring a constant power supply to the load. The parameters of the proposed NTSMC are optimized using the ISSA, which introduces an intelligent NTSMC. Finally, a MATLAB/Simulink simulation model is established. The simulation results show that the ISSA-based composite sliding-mode surface NTSMC system designed for DC microgrid systems with CPL exhibits high robustness and guarantees ideal steady-state characteristics and dynamic responses when input voltage fluctuations and load disturbances occur. Full article

This paper proposes a robust algorithm based on a fixed-time sliding mode controller (FTSMC) for a Quadrotor aircraft. This approach is based on Lyapunov theory, which guarantees system stability. Nonlinear error dynamics techniques are used to achieve accurate trajectory tracking in the presence of disturbances. The performance of the FTSMC is compared with the typical non-singular terminal sliding mode controller (NTSMC) to evaluate its effectiveness. The numerical results show that FTSMC is more efficient than the typical NTSMC in disturbance reduction. Full article

Aiming at the problems of model uncertainties and other external interference in trajectory tracking control of n-degree of freedom manipulators, a non-singular terminal sliding mode controller with nonlinear disturbance observer (NDO–NTSMC) trajectory tracking method is proposed. A nonlinear disturbance observer (NDO) is designed to forecast and compensate the system external interference, and a nonlinear gain is designed to make the observer error achieve the expected exponential convergence rate so that the feedforward compensation control is realized. Then, a non-singular terminal sliding mode controller (NTSMC) built on nonlinear sliding surface is designed to surmount the singularity fault of classic terminal sliding mode controller (TSMC). Therefore, the time required from any initial state to reach the equilibrium point is finite. In addition, the redesign of the sliding surface ensures the tracking accuracy rate of uncertain systems. Then, based on Lyapunov principle, we complete the stability analysis. Finally, the method is applied to a 2-DOF robotic manipulator model compared with other methods. In the simulation, the manipulator needs to track a continuous trajectory under the condition of joint friction disturbance. The simulation result shows that the torque output of the designed method is chattering-free and smooth, and the tracking effect is precise. Simulation results indicate that the proposed controller has the advantages of excellent tracking performance, strong robustness, and a fast response. Full article

In this paper, a model predictive control (MPC) method optimized by an adaptive particle swarm optimization (APSO) algorithm is proposed. Combined with non-singular terminal sliding mode control (NTSMC), the inner and outer double-closed-loop control system is constructed to solve the fully actuated autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) dynamic trajectory tracking control problem. First, the outer loop controller generates the expected optimal velocity commands and passes them to the inner loop velocity controller, which generates the available control inputs to ensure the entire closed-loop trajectory tracking. In the controller design stage, system input and state constraints are effectively considered. After that, a compensator based on an adaptive radial basis function (RBF) neural network (NN) is designed to compensate for the model error and external sea state disturbances and to improve the control accuracy of the system. Then, the stability of the proposed controller is proved based on Lyapunov analysis. Finally, the dynamic trajectory tracking performance of an AUV with different sea state disturbances is verified by simulation, and the simulation results are compared with double-closed-loop PD control and cascade control of standard MPC based on PSO and SMC. The results show that the designed controller is effective and robust. Full article

This paper researches the issue of the finite-time combination-combination (C-C) synchronization (FTCCS) of fractional order (FO) chaotic systems under multiple stochastic disturbances (SD) utilizing the nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (NTSMC) technique. The systems we considered have different characteristics of the structures and the parameters are unknown. The stochastic disturbances are considered parameter uncertainties, nonlinear uncertainties and external disturbances. The bounds of the uncertainties and disturbances are unknown. Firstly, we are going to put forward a new FO sliding surface in terms of fractional calculus. Secondly, some suitable adaptive control laws (ACL) are found to assess the unknown parameters and examine the upper bound of stochastic disturbances. Finally, combining the finite-time Lyapunov stability theory and the sliding mode control (SMC) technique, we propose a fractional-order adaptive combination controller that can achieve the finite-time synchronization of drive-response (D-R) systems. In this paper, some of the synchronization methods, such as chaos control, complete synchronization, projection synchronization, anti-synchronization, and so forth, have become special cases of combination-combination synchronization. Examples are presented to verify the usefulness and validity of the proposed scheme via MATLAB. Full article

In this work, a tracking control strategy is developed to achieve finite-time stability of quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) subject to external disturbances and parameter uncertainties. Firstly, a finite-time extended state observer (ESO) is proposed based on the nonsingular terminal sliding mode variable to estimate external disturbances to the position subsystem. Then, utilizing the information provided by the ESO and the nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (NTSMC) technique, a dynamic surface controller is proposed to achieve finite-time stability of the position subsystem. By conducting a similar step for the attitude subsystem, a finite-time ESO-based dynamic surface controller is proposed to carry out attitude tracking control of the quadrotor UAV. Finally, the performance of the control algorithm is demonstrated via a numerical simulation. Full article