In this study, a novel robust observer-based adaptive controller was formulated for systems represented by second-order input–output dynamics with unknown second state, and it was applied to concentration tracking in a chemical reactor. By using dead-zone Lyapunov functions and adaptive backstepping method, an improved control law was derived, exhibiting faster response to changes in the output tracking error while avoiding input chattering and providing robustness to uncertain model terms. Moreover, a state observer was formulated for estimating the unknown state. The main contributions with respect to closely related designs are (i) the control law, the update law and the observer equations involve no discontinuous signals; (ii) it is guaranteed that the developed controller leads to the convergence of the tracking error to a compact set whose width is user-defined, and it does not depend on upper bounds of model terms, state variables or disturbances; and (iii) the control law exhibits a fast response to changes in the tracking error, whereas the control effort can be reduced through the controller parameters. Finally, the effectiveness of the developed controller is illustrated by the simulation of concentration tracking in a stirred chemical reactor.
On the problem of stability of a motion of essentially nonlinear systems