IET Control Theory & Applications
Brief Paper
Saturated robust adaptive control for
uncertain non-linear systems using a new
approximate model
ISSN 1751-8644
Received on 5th August 2016
Revised 7th December 2016
Accepted on 25th December 2016
E-First on 14th February 2017
doi: 10.1049/iet-cta.2016.0979
www.ietdl.org
Yong-Hua Liu
1
1
Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Health Maintenance for Mechanical Equipment, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan,
Hunan 411201, People's Republic of China
E-mail: yonghua.liu@outlook.com
Abstract: In this study, the authors consider the problem of adaptive tracking control for a class of non-linear uncertain systems
in the presence of input saturation. To tackle the effects of the non-smooth saturation non-linearity, a novel approximate
saturation model is constructed, which can smoothly approximate the real saturation with arbitrarily prescribed precision. By
utilising dynamic surface control approach with the modified linear filters, a robust adaptive control scheme is explicitly designed
via the adding an integrator technique. The proposed controller can eliminate not only the ‘explosion of complexity’ issue
inherent in the backstepping design but also the coupling terms with respect to the surface errors and the boundary layer errors.
In addition, the stability analysis shows that all the resulting closed-loop signals are semi-global uniformly ultimately bounded.
Finally, simulation results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the developed method.
1 Introduction
In many industrial processes, the magnitude of control signals is
usually constrained due to the limitation of the actuators or the
safety requirements. As one of the commonly non-smooth non-
linearities, saturation always limits system performance severely
by giving rise to undesirable inaccuracy or oscillations, and even
leads to instability [1, 2]. Driven by practical interests and
theoretical challenges, the development of adaptive control design
for compensating the effects of saturation non-linearity has become
a hot topic [3, 4]. Several efficient methods have been proposed for
linear and non-linear systems with input saturation, such as model
reference adaptive control [5, 6], model predictive control [7, 8],
anti-windup control [9, 10], low-gain control [11, 12], and
intelligent control [13–17]. Other remarkable approaches include
reference governors [18], variable structure control [19, 20], and
dynamic inversion control [21].
However, most of the available adaptive control schemes for
systems with input saturation are descriptive rather than
constructive. As a constructive tool, the use of backstepping
approach for considering saturation non-linearity has recently
attracted considerable attention. In [22], a novel on-line
approximation based backstepping control was proposed for non-
linear systems in the presence of known magnitude, rate, or
bandwidth constraints on the states or actuators. For a class of
uncertain multi-input–multi-output (MIMO) non-linear systems
with input constraints and unknown control coefficient matrices, a
robust backstepping-based neural network controller was presented
via variable structure control and Lyapunov synthesis [23]. In [24],
to mitigate the effects of input non-linearities in MIMO non-linear
systems, an auxiliary design system was introduced and its states
were used to develop adaptive tracking control. In [25], constrained
adaptive backstepping control was proposed for the F-16/MATV
(multi-axis thrust vectoring) aircraft. In [26], by exploring the non-
smooth properties of saturation non-linearity, a well defined
smooth function was employed to approximate the saturation with
a bounded approximation error, then two global robust adaptive
control schemes were proposed for uncertain non-linear systems
with input saturation and external disturbance. Inspired by the
method in [26], significant results were developed for unknown
non-linear systems with input saturation [27–31]. In [32], by
utilising the robust integral of the sign of the error methodology, a
continuous saturation control law with smooth saturation functions
was designed for a class of second-order, uncertain non-linear
time-varying systems with bounded disturbances. In [33], a dead-
zone operator-based model was proposed to describe saturation
non-linearity, and the corresponding robust adaptive controller was
developed for a class of non-linear saturated non-linear systems. In
[34], by utilising a novel sliding mode disturbance observer, robust
constrained control was presented for cascade non-linear MIMO
systems with input saturation and unknown external disturbance.
Although numerous results by using backstepping technique are
available for non-linear systems with input saturation in the
literature, a main barrier, called the ‘explosion of complexity’
problem, may limit the practical implementation of these control
schemes. To overcome this problem, a dynamic surface control
(DSC) approach, which was proposed originally in [35, 36], has
been studied extensively to deal with the effects of saturation non-
linearity. In [37], the problem of simultaneous quadratic
stabilisation for a class of non-linear systems with input saturation
was studied, a DSC scheme of estimating the ellipsoidal initial
condition set was proposed to ensure the quadratic stabilisation. In
[38–42], by using a hyperbolic tangent function (HTF) defined in
[26], adaptive approximation-based DSC schemes were presented
for various classes of non-linear systems with input saturation. In
[43], the authors addressed adaptive control for a class of MIMO
non-affine pure-feedback systems with input saturation and time
delays, an adaptive neural DSC approach was obtained by
integrating mean value theorem and the auxiliary system. To
handle the effects of input saturation and stochastic disturbance, an
adaptive DSC approach was proposed for a class of stochastic non-
linear systems using the existing dead zone-based model of
saturation [44]. For interconnected non-linear systems in the
presence of input saturation, a decentralised neural DSC method
was presented via a novel truncated adaptation design [45].
Motivated by the above-mentioned works, in this paper, the
problem of adaptive tracking for strict-feedback non-linear systems
in the presence of input saturation is investigated. Instead of using
the existing HTF proposed in [26], the saturation input non-
linearity is approximated by a new approximate saturation model,
which can smoothly approximate the real saturation with any
prescribed accuracy. By utilising the adding an integrator technique
and DSC approach, the design difficulties induced by the non-
affine fashion in augmented system and the problem of ‘explosion
of complexity’ inherent in the backstepping method are removed.
Based on the Lyapunov stability theory, it is proven that all signals
IET Control Theory Appl., 2017, Vol. 11 Iss. 6, pp. 870-876
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