This paper presents a methodology for controlling nonlinear time-varying minimum-phase underactuated systems affected by matched and unmatched perturbations. The proposed control structure consists of an integral sliding mode control coupled together with a global nonlinearH∞-control for rejecting vanishing and nonvanishing matched perturbations and for attenuating the unmatched ones, respectively. It is theoretically proven that, using the proposed controller, the origin of the free-disturbance nonlinear system is asymptotically stabilized, while the matched disturbances are rejected whereas theL2-gain of the corresponding nonlinear system with unmatched perturbation is less than a given disturbance attenuation levelγwith respect to a given performance output. The capability of the designed controller is verified through a flexible joint robot manipulator typically affected by both classes of external perturbations. In order to assess the performance of the proposed controller, an existing sliding modes controller based on a nonlinear integral-type sliding surface is also implemented. Both controllers are then compared for trajectory tracking tasks. Numerical simulations show that the proposed approach exhibits better performance.
Robust Stability for Nonlinear Systems with Time-Varying Delay and Uncertainties via theH∞Quasi-Sliding Mode Control
