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The backlash by the hysteresis between the input and the output is always present in the inertial stabilized platform, which will seriously affect the dynamic performance of the platform system at low speed. So, the backlash has been paid more and more attention for the use in the inertial stabilized platform. To handle such a situation, extend disturbance observer (EDOB) has a high advantage to compensate the disturbance caused by backlash. However, some research studies show that the observation effect for some fast time-varying disturbances is satisfactory, which will strict limits on the rate of change in disturbance and still hamper its application; consequently, this paper proposes a sliding-mode-based extend disturbance observer (SMEDO) to compensate backlash. By well-designed sliding-mode surface, it is unnecessary to measure the whole state and the lack of robustness against unmatched uncertainties of the resulting controller, and the robustness and accuracy of modified disturbance observer can be enhanced. Experiments were carried out on a DSP-based platform with backlash in the pitch shafting. The obtained experimental results demonstrate that the SMEDO scheme has an improved performance with the dynamic performance and shafting transmission accuracy compared with the traditional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a hybrid robust control design method for a third-order lower-triangular model of nonlinear dynamic systems in the presence of disturbance. In this paper, a novel control design is presented systematically to synthesize a robust nonlinear feedback controller, called backstepping sliding mode control (BSMC), for the proposed system by a combined approach of backstepping design and sliding mode control. In this approach, a family of the "sliding surface" is introduced in state transformations. Then, a smooth switching function of the sliding surface is introduced and enforced to include in virtual feedbacks and a real control law from the control selection phrases of the backstepping design loop. The achieved control method proves a well-tracking command with asymptotic stability, provides a robustness in the presence of uncertainties, and eliminates completely a chattering phenomenon. The application of flight-path angle control corresponding to the longitudinal dynamics of a high-performance F-16 aircraft simulation model is implemented. Under some assumptions, full nonlinear longitudinal dynamics is reformed into a lower-triangular system for a direct application to formulate a control law. A closed-loop system is achieved for in-flight simulation with different flight profiles for a comparison of the existing methods. Also, an external disturbance on different loading/unloading conditions in flight is applied to verify and validate robustness of the proposed control method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a class of nonlinear harmonic gear drive systems with mismatched uncertainties, a novel robust control method is presented on the basis of quadratic integral sliding mode surface, and the closed-loop system has satisfying performance and strong robustness against mismatched uncertainties and nonlinear disturbances. Considering time-varying nonlinear torques and parameters variations which are caused by nonlinear frictions and backlash, a nonlinear harmonic gear drive system mathematic model is established and the effect of nonlinear parts is compensated during control system design. It is proven that the quadratic integral sliding mode surface can be reached in finite time and the closed-loop system is asymptotic stable robustly. The simulation studies are carried out in comparison with traditional linear sliding mode control and integral sliding mode control, verifying the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sliding mode control (SMC) strategy is employed to a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) vector control system in this study to improve system robustness against parameter variations and load disturbance. To decrease the intrinsic chattering behavior of SMC, a speed SMC with an adaptive law and an extended state observer (ESO) is proposed. In this method, based on the Lyapunov stability theorem, adaptive estimation laws are deduced to estimate uncertainties of a PMSM caused by parameter variations and unmodeled dynamics. Online estimated uncertainties can be used to eliminate the effect caused by the real uncertainties. In addition, an ESO is applied to observe the load disturbance in real time. The load disturbance observed value is then utilized to the output side of the speed adaptive SMC controller as feed-forward compensation. Both the simulation and experiment results demonstrate that the proposed approach effectively alleviates system chattering and enhances system robustness against uncertainty and load disturbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of designing a continuous control to guarantee finite-time tracking based on output feedback for a system subject to a Hölder disturbance has remained elusive. The main difficulty stems from the fact that such disturbance stands for a function that is continuous but not necessarily differentiable in any integer-order sense, yet it is fractional-order differentiable. This problem imposes a formidable challenge of practical interest in engineering because (i) it is common that only partial access to the state is available and, then, output feedback is needed; (ii) such disturbances are present in more realistic applications, suggesting a fractional-order controller; and (iii) continuous robust control is a must in several control applications. Consequently, these stringent requirements demand a sound mathematical framework for designing a solution to this control problem. To estimate the full state in finite-time, a high-order sliding mode-based differentiator is considered. Then, a continuous fractional differintegral sliding mode is proposed to reject Hölder disturbances, as well as for uncertainties and unmodeled dynamics. Finally, a homogeneous closed-loop system is enforced by means of a continuous nominal control, assuring finite-time convergence. Numerical simulations are presented to show the reliability of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the robust direct yaw-moment control (DYC) through parameter-dependent fuzzy sliding mode control (SMC) approach for all-wheel-independent-drive electric vehicles (AWID-EVs) subject to network-induced delays. AWID-EVs have obvious advantages in terms of DYC over the traditional centralized-drive vehicles. However it is one of the most principal issues for AWID-EVs to ensure the robustness of DYC. Furthermore, the network-induced delays would also reduce control performance of DYC and even deteriorate the EV system. To ensure robustness of DYC and deal with network-induced delays, a parameter-dependent fuzzy sliding mode control (FSMC) method based on the real-time information of vehicle states and delays is proposed in this paper. The results of cosimulations with Simulink® and CarSim® demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller. Moreover, the results of comparison with a conventional FSMC controller illustrate the strength of explicitly dealing with network-induced delays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A nonlinear excitation controller for the uncertain parameters and external disturbances is designed by using the backstepping method and sliding mode control theory. In the design process, nonlinear features are retained completely with no linear technique used here. Compared with the excitation controllers designed via conventional linearization, the newly designed one has superiorities in strong robustness to external disturbances, good adaptive ability to variation of system parameters, super transient performance, and the ability to assure preset constraints. Simulation results prove the validity and stability of the controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the synchronization of a class of fractional order chaotic systems with unknown parameters and external disturbance. Based on the Lyapunov stability theory, a fractional order sliding mode is constructed and a controller is proposed to realize chaos synchronization. The presented method not only realizes the synchronization of the considered chaotic systems but also enhances the robustness of sliding mode synchronization. Finally, some simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel chattering-free sliding mode control method for a class of disturbed nonlinear systems, which achieves fast and exact disturbance estimation, eliminates chattering, and recovers the performance of nominal system and nominal control input. The proposed approach combines time scale separation design and sliding mode control. Different from the existing disturbance estimation based sliding mode control methods, the proposed scheme achieves fast and exact disturbance estimation through time scale separation and eliminates discontinuous switching term, thereby achieving good chattering alleviation effect and providing good transient response. The proposed control method is applied to suppress chaos in power system and simulation results confirm the effectiveness and robustness of proposed control scheme and highlight the advantages of the proposed control scheme over the existing disturbance estimation based sliding mode control methods in terms of chattering alleviation effect and transient response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a robust control design for the class of underactuated uncertain nonlinear systems. Either the nonlinear model of the underactuated systems is transformed into an input output form and then an integral manifold is devised for the control design purpose or an integral manifold is defined directly for the concerned class. Having defined the integral manifolds discontinuous control laws are designed which are capable of maintaining sliding mode from the very beginning. The closed loop stability of these systems is presented in an impressive way. The effectiveness and demand of the designed control laws are verified via the simulation and experimental results of ball and beam system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A precise control of the normalized air to fuel ratio in spark ignition engines is an essential task. To achieve this goal, in this work we take into consideration the time delay measurement presented by the universal exhaust gas oxygen sensor along with uncertainties in the volumetric efficiency. For that purpose, observers are designed by means of a super-twisting sliding mode estimation scheme. Also two control schemes based on a general nonlinear model and a similar nonlinear affine representation for the dynamics of the normalized air to fuel ratio were designed in this work by using the super-twisting sliding mode methodology. Such dynamics depends on the control input, that is, the injected fuel mass flow, its time derivative, and its reciprocal. The two latter terms are estimated by means of a robust sliding mode differentiator. The observers and controllers are designed based on an isothermal mean value engine model. Numeric and hardware in the loop simulations were carried out with such model, where parameters were taken from a real engine. The obtained results show a good output tracking and rejection of disturbances when the engine is closed loop with proposed control methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An adaptive second-order sliding mode controller is proposed for a class of nonlinear systems with unknown input. The proposed controller continuously drives the sliding variable and its time derivative to zero in the presence of disturbances with unknown boundaries. A Lyapunov approach is used to show finite time stability for the system in the presence of a class of uncertainty. An illustrative simulation example is presented to demonstrate the performance and robustness of the proposed controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the integrated guidance and control (IGC) method applied in the interception of maneuvering near space hypersonic vehicles using the homogeneous high order sliding mode (HOSM) approach. The IGC model is derived by combining the target-missile relative motion and dynamic equations. Then, a fourth-order sliding mode controller is implemented in the augmented IGC model. To estimate the high order derivatives of the sliding manifold which is required in the HOSM method, an Arbitrary Order Robust Exact Differentiator is presented. At last, the idea of virtual control is introduced to alleviate the chattering of the control input without using any saturation functions which may lead to a loss of the robustness. And the stability of the closed-loop system with presented fourth-order homogeneous HOSM controller is also proved theoretically. Finally, simulation results are provided and analyzed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in three typical engagement scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a predictive sliding mode control (PSMC) scheme for attitude control of hypersonic vehicle (HV) with system uncertainties and external disturbances based on an improved fuzzy disturbance observer (IFDO). First, for a class of uncertain affine nonlinear systems with system uncertainties and external disturbances, we propose a predictive sliding mode control based on fuzzy disturbance observer (FDO-PSMC), which is used to estimate the composite disturbances containing system uncertainties and external disturbances. Afterward, to enhance the composite disturbances rejection performance, an improved FDO-PSMC (IFDO-PSMC) is proposed by incorporating a hyperbolic tangent function with FDO to compensate for the approximate error of FDO. Finally, considering the actuator dynamics, the proposed IFDO-PSMC is applied to attitude control system design for HV to track the guidance commands with high precision and strong robustness. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed attitude control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an original adaptive sliding mode control strategy for a class of nonlinear systems on the basis of uncertainty and disturbance estimator. The nonlinear systems can be with parametric uncertainties as well as unmatched uncertainties and external disturbances. The novel adaptive sliding mode control has several advantages over traditional sliding mode control method. Firstly, discontinuous sign function does not exist in the proposed adaptive sliding mode controller, and it is not replaced by saturation function or similar approximation functions as well. Therefore, chattering is avoided in essence, and the chattering avoidance is not at the cost of reducing the robustness of the closed-loop systems. Secondly, the uncertainties do not need to satisfy matching condition and the bounds of uncertainties are not required to be unknown. Thirdly, it is proved that the closed-loop systems have robustness to parameter uncertainties as well as unmatched model uncertainties and external disturbances. The robust stability is analyzed from a second-order linear time invariant system to a nonlinear systemgradually. Simulation on a pendulum system with motor dynamics verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the nonlinearities, uncertainties of large erecting system, and the circumstance disturbances in erecting process, a novel sliding mode control strategy is proposed in this research. The proposed control strategy establishes the sliding mode without reaching phase using an integral sliding surface. Thus, robustness against uncertainties increases from the very beginning of the process. Furthermore, adaptive laws are used for the controller to estimate the unknown but bounded system uncertainties. Therefore, the upper bounds of the system uncertainties are not required to be known in advance. Then, the time-varying term is applied to ensure the global robustness. Moreover, the boundary layer method is used to attenuate the high frequency chattering. The experiment results demonstrated that the proposed strategy could effectively restrain parametric uncertainties and external disturbances and improve the tracking accuracy in the erecting process. In addition, the control performance of the proposed control strategy is better than that of the PID control and the conventional sliding mode control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of a variable structure sliding-mode controller (SMC) for a variable speed wind turbine with double-fed induction generator, based on the fuzzy logic, is described in this paper. The purpose of this controller is to maximize the energy capture by operating the turbine at the optimal rotational speed as well as fast and stable generator response. The dynamics of both the turbine and the generator are modeled to exhibit their mechanical/electrical characteristics. Two global sliding-mode controllers, which eliminate the reaching phase of SMC and the sliding-mode motion starts from the beginning, are designed to guarantee the robust tracking of both the optimal blade-rotor speed and the reference generator torque/flux in the whole process, despite the parametric uncertainty and external disturbance. To reduce the adverse chattering effect of the conventional SMC, the adaptive fuzzy inference strategy is adopted to deduce the adjustable switch gain, instead of the fixed gains. Simulation results show that the proposed controller achieves global asymptotic tracking, satisfied torque/flux responses, and has better performance and higher utilization ratio of wind energy than the conventional feedback-linearization method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the problems of modeling errors, parameter variations, and load moment disturbances in DC motor control system, one global sliding mode disturbance observer (GSMDO) is proposed based on the global sliding mode (GSM) control theory. The output of GSMDO is used as the disturbance compensation in control system, which can improve the robust performance of DC motor control system. Based on the designed GSMDO in inner loop, one compound controller, composed of a feedback controller and a feedforward controller, is proposed in order to realize the position tracking of DC motor system. The gains of feedback controller are obtained by means of linear quadratic regulator (LQR) optimal control theory. Simulation results present that the proposed control scheme possesses better tracking properties and stronger robustness against modeling errors, parameter variations, and friction moment disturbances. Moreover, its structure is simple; therefore it is easy to be implemented in engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sliding mode control (SMC) is rapped for the chattering due to high gain control. However, high gain control causes the system robust. For developing a system with robustness of SMC, a servo motor motion controller combining the two-degree-of-freedom (2DOF) system and SMC is proposed. The discussed motion type is point-to-point control with the constraint of trapezoid velocity profile. SMC is designed to guide the motor motion to follow a predefined trail, and the inner 2DOF system is used to compensate the deterioration due to the adoption of load observer. The proposed hybrid system is realized on a PC-based motion controller, and the validness is verified by simulation and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attitude stability analysis and robust control algorithms for spacecrafts orbiting irregular asteroids are investigated in the presence of model uncertainties and external disturbances. Rigid spacecraft nonlinear attitude models are considered and detailed attitude stability analysis of spacecraft subjected to the gravity gradient torque in an irregular central gravity field is included in retrograde orbits and direct orbits using linearized system model. The robust adaptive backstepping sliding mode control laws are designed to make the attitude of the spacecrafts stabilized and responded accurately to the expectation in the presence of disturbances and parametric uncertainties. Numerical simulations are included to illustrate the spacecraft performance obtained using the proposed control laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sliding mode control has the merits with respect to the variation of the disturbance and robustness. In this paper, the sensorless sliding-mode observer with least mean squared error approach for permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) to detect the rotor position by counter electromotive force and then compute motor speed is designed and implemented. In addition, the neural network control is also used to compensate the PI gain tuning to increase the speed accuracy without regarding the errors of the current measurement and motor noise. In this paper, a digital signal processor TMS320F2812 utilizes its high-speed ADC module to get current feedback information and thus to estimate the rotor position and takes advantage of the built-in modules to achieve SVPWM current control so that the senseless speed control will be accomplished. The correctness and effectiveness of the proposed control system will be verified from the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As to strong nonlinearity of doubly fed induction generators (DFIG) and uncertainty of its model, a novel rotor current controller with nonlinearity and robustness is proposed to enhance fault ride-though (FRT) capacities of grid-connected DFIG. Firstly, the model error, external disturbances, and the uncertain factors were estimated by constructing extended state observer (ESO) so as to achieve linearization model, which is compensated dynamically from nonlinear model. And then rotor current controller of DFIG is designed by using terminal sliding mode variable structure control theory (TSMC). The controller has superior dynamic performance and strong robustness. The simulation results show that the proposed control approach is effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is aimed at designing a robust vaccination strategy capable of eradicating an infectious disease from a population regardless of the potential uncertainty in the parameters defining the disease. For this purpose, a control theoretic approach based on a sliding-mode control law is used. Initially, the controller is designed assuming certain knowledge of an upper-bound of the uncertainty signal. Afterwards, this condition is removed while an adaptive sliding control system is designed. The closed-loop properties are proved mathematically in the nonadaptive and adaptive cases. Furthermore, the usual sign function appearing in the sliding-mode control is substituted by the saturation function in order to prevent chattering. In addition, the properties achieved by the closed-loop system under this variation are also stated and proved analytically. The closed-loop system is able to attain the control objective regardless of the parametric uncertainties of the model and the lack of a priori knowledge on the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Control strategies of D-STATCOM for unbalanced load compensation under internal and external disturbances were discussed. Linear control strategies do not have a satisfactory dynamic performance and become invalid under internal or external disturbances. To guarantee a good precision and robustness, a control strategy combining input-output feedback linearization technique with integral sliding mode control (ISMC) method was applied to D-STATCOM for unbalanced load compensation. The strategy has features of simple structure and is easy to implement. A 10MVar/10 kV D-STATCOM simulation system was built in PSCAD/EMTDC to verify the effectiveness and robustness of the control strategy proposed. Simulation results show that the control strategy can compensate reactive power and eliminate unbalance simultaneously under various disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attitude tracking control problem of a spacecraft nonlinear system with external disturbances and inertia uncertainties is studied. Two robust attitude tracking controllers based on finite-time second-order sliding mode control schemes are proposed to solve this problem. For the first controller, smooth super twisting control is applied to quaternion-based spacecraft-attitude-tracking maneuvers. The second controller is developed by adding linear correction terms to the first super twisting control algorithm in order to improve the dynamic performance of the closed-loop system. Both controllers are continuous and, therefore, chattering free. The concepts of a strong Lyapunov function are employed to ensure a finite-time convergence property of the proposed controllers. Theoretical analysis shows that the resulting control laws have strong robustness and disturbance attenuation ability. Numerical simulations are also given to demonstrate the performance of the proposed control laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of designing a sliding mode controller with uncertain sliding surface for a class of uncertain single-input-singleoutput systems is studied. The design case is handled by using the invariant transformation first in order to separate the sliding mode and the reaching mode of the sliding mode control system. It is shown that the sliding mode design needs not to consider the uncertainties of the sliding surface, which can be handled in the reaching phase design. The results generalize the robust design of the reaching phase such that one specific reaching phase design may agree with several sliding surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theproblem of robust fault-tolerant tracking control is investigated. Simulation on the longitudinal model of a flexible air-breathing hypersonic vehicle (FAHV) with actuator faults and uncertainties is conducted. In order to guarantee that the velocity and altitude track their desired commands in finite time with the partial loss of actuator effectiveness, an adaptive fault-tolerant control strategy is presented based on practical finite-time sliding mode method. The adaptive update laws are used to estimate the upper bound of uncertainties and the minimum value of actuator efficiency factor. Finally, simulation results show that the proposed control strategy is effective in rejecting uncertainties even in the presence of actuator faults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the tracking accuracy of flight simulator and expend its frequency response, a multirate-sampling-methodbased discrete-time chattering free slidingmode control is developed and imported into the systems. By constructing themultirate sampling sliding mode controller, the flight simulator can perfectly track a given reference signal with an arbitrarily small dynamic tracking error, and the problems caused by a contradiction of reference signal period and control period in traditional design method can be eliminated. It is proved by theoretical analysis that the extremely high dynamic tracking precision can be obtained. Meanwhile, the robustness is guaranteed by slidingmode control even though there are modeling mismatch, external disturbances and measure noise. The validity of the proposed method is confirmed by experiments on flight simulator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes an active disturbance rejection approach for the establishment of a sliding mode control strategy in faulttolerant operations. The core of the proposed active disturbance rejection assistance is a Generalized Proportional Integral (GPI) observer which is in charge of the active estimation of lumped nonlinear endogenous and exogenous disturbance inputs related to the creation of local sliding regimes with limited control authority. Possibilities are explored for the GPI observer assisted sliding mode control in fault-tolerant schemes. Convincing improvements are presented with respect to classical sliding mode control strategies. As a collateral advantage, the observer-based control architecture offers the possibility of chattering reduction given that a significant part of the control signal is of the continuous type. The case study considers a classical DC motor control affected by actuator faults, parametric failures, and perturbations. Experimental results and comparisons with other established sliding mode controller design methodologies, which validate the proposed approach, are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is concerned with sliding mode control for uncertain time-delay systems subjected to input nonlinearity and stochastic perturbations. Using the sliding mode control, a robust law is derived to guarantee the reachability of the sliding surface in a finite time interval. The sufficient conditions on asymptotic stability of the error system and sliding mode dynamics with disturbance attenuation level are presented in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Finally, an example is provided to illustrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For spacecraft attitude tracking system, there exists the chattering phenomenon. In this paper, the spacecraft motion is decomposed into three-channel subsystems, and a second-order sliding mode control is proposed. This method has been proved to have good convergence and robustness. Combined with the proposed sliding surface, the three-channel controllers are designed. The control performance is confirmed by the simulation results, the approaching process is improved effectively, and a smooth transition is achieved without overshoot and buffeting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the parameters of both drive and response systems are all unknown, an adaptive sliding mode controller, strongly robust to exotic perturbations, is designed for realizing generalized function projective synchronization. Sliding mode surface is given and the controlled system is asymptotically stable on this surface with the passage of time. Based on the adaptation laws and Lyapunov stability theory, an adaptive sliding controller is designed to ensure the occurrence of the sliding motion. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to verify the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method even when both drive and response systems are perturbed with external disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An adaptive sliding mode control using robust feedback compensator is presented for a MEMS gyroscope in the presence of external disturbances and parameter uncertainties. An adaptive controller with a robust term is used to improve the robustness of the control system and compensate the system nonlinearities. The proposed robust adaptive control can estimate the angular velocity and all the system parameters including damping and stiffness coefficients in the Lyapunov framework. In addition, standard adaptive control scheme without robust algorithm is compared with the proposed robust adaptive scheme in the aspect of numerical simulation and algorithm derivation. Numerical simulations show that the robust adaptive control has better robustness in the presence of external disturbances than the standard adaptive control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A structure mode of virtual compound-axis servo systemis proposed to improve the tracking accuracy of the ordinary optoelectric tracking platform. It is based on the structure and principles of compound-axis servo system. A hybrid position control scheme combining the PD controller and feed-forward controller is used in subsystem to track the tracking error of the main system. This paper analyzes the influences of the equivalent disturbance in main system and proposes an adaptive sliding mode robust control method based on the improved disturbance observer. The sliding mode technique helps this disturbance observer to deal with the uncompensated disturbance in high frequency by making use of the rapid switching control value, which is based on the subtle error of disturbance estimation. Besides, the high-frequency chattering is alleviated effectively in this proposal. The effectiveness of the proposal is confirmed by experiments on optoelectric tracking platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The moving mass actuation technique offers significant advantages over conventional aerodynamic control surfaces and reaction control systems, because the actuators are contained entirely within the airframe geometrical envelope. Modeling, control, and simulation ofMassMoment Aerospace Vehicles (MMAV) utilizing moving mass actuators are discussed. Dynamics of the MMAV are separated into two parts on the basis of the two time-scale separation theory: the dynamics of fast state and the dynamics of slow state. And then, in order to restrain the system chattering and keep the track performance of the system by considering aerodynamic parameter perturbation, the flight control system is designed for the two subsystems, respectively, utilizing fuzzy sliding mode control approach. The simulation results describe the effectiveness of the proposed autopilot design approach. Meanwhile, the chattering phenomenon that frequently appears in the conventional variable structure systems is also eliminated without deteriorating the system robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the asymptotic consensus problem for a class of multiagent systems with time-varying additive actuator faults and perturbed communications. TheL2 2 performance of systems is also considered in the consensus controller designs. The upper and lower bounds of faults and perturbations in actuators and communications and controller gains are assumed to be unknown but can be estimated by designing some indirect adaptive laws. Based on the information from the adaptive estimation mechanism, the distributed robust adaptive sliding mode controllers are constructed to automatically compensate for the effects of faults and perturbations and to achieve any given level ofL2 2 gain attenuation from external disturbance to consensus errors. Through Lyapunov functions and adaptive schemes, the asymptotic consensus of resulting adaptive multiagent system can be achieved with a specified performance criterion in the presence of perturbed communications and actuators. The effectiveness of the proposed design is illustrated via a decoupled longitudinal model of F-18 aircraft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear fusion has arisen as an alternative energy to avoid carbon dioxide emissions, being the tokamak a promising nuclear fusion reactor that uses a magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus. However, different kinds of magnetohydrodynamic instabilities may affect tokamak plasma equilibrium, causing severe reduction of particle confinement and leading to plasma disruptions. In this sense, numerous efforts and resources have been devoted to seeking solutions for the different plasma control problems so as to avoid energy confinement time decrements in these devices. In particular, since the growth rate of the vertical instability increases with the internal inductance, lowering the internal inductance is a fundamental issue to address for the elongated plasmas employed within the advanced tokamaks currently under development. In this sense, this paper introduces a lumped parameter numerical model of the tokamak in order to design a novel robust sliding mode controller for the internal inductance using the transformer primary coil as actuator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]