ISA Transactions ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

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ISA Transactions
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/isatrans

Research Article

Terminal sliding mode tracking control for a class of SISO uncertain

nonlinear systems
Mou Chen a,n, Qing-Xian Wu a, Rong-Xin Cui b
a
b

College of Automation Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
College of Marine Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xian 710072, China

a r t i c l e i n f o

abstract

Article history:
Received 11 July 2011
Received in revised form
14 September 2012
Accepted 28 September 2012
This paper was recommended for publication by Dr. Jeff Pieper

In this paper, the terminal sliding mode tracking control is proposed for the uncertain single-input and
single-output (SISO) nonlinear system with unknown external disturbance. For the unmeasured
disturbance of nonlinear systems, terminal sliding mode disturbance observer is presented.
The developed disturbance observer can guarantee the disturbance approximation error to converge
to zero in the nite time. Based on the output of designed disturbance observer, the terminal sliding
mode tracking control is presented for uncertain SISO nonlinear systems. Subsequently, terminal
sliding mode tracking control is developed using disturbance observer technique for the uncertain SISO
nonlinear system with control singularity and unknown non-symmetric input saturation. The effects of
the control singularity and unknown input saturation are combined with the external disturbance
which is approximated using the disturbance observer. Under the proposed terminal sliding mode
tracking control techniques, the nite time convergence of all closed-loop signals are guaranteed via
Lyapunov analysis. Numerical simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the
proposed terminal sliding mode tracking control.
& 2012 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Uncertain nonlinear system
Input saturation
Disturbance observer
Terminal sliding mode control
Tracking control

1. Introduction
During the past several decades, a lots of robust control
schemes have been developed for the uncertain nonlinear system
[14]. Sliding mode control (SMC) has received much attention as
an efcient control technique for handling systems with large
uncertainties, nonlinearities, and bounded external disturbances
[510]. The SMC was proposed for a class of nonlinear stochastic
systems with sector nonlinearities and deadzones in [9]. In [10],
the sliding-mode framework was given for multi-input afne
nonlinear systems. The systematic output-sliding control design
methodology was investigated for multivariable nonlinear systems [11]. The dynamic SMC was proposed for multi-input and
multi-output (MIMO) systems with additive uncertainties in [12].
In [13], model-reference tracking SMC was presented for uncertain plants with arbitrary relative degree. Due to the robust
enhanced ability, SMC has been widely used in many practical
control systems to improve the control system performance [14].
In [15], robust SMC was proposed for the inverted-pendulum
system. The second order SMC algorithm was presented for a twin
tank system in [16]. However, the basic SMC cannot guarantee

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: chenmou@nuaa.edu.cn (M. Chen).

closed-loop system states converge to the equilibrium in the

nite time.
In order to render the system state reach the equilibrium in
the nite time, terminal sliding mode control (TSMC) has been
proposed and used in various control problems. In [17], TSMC of
MIMO linear systems was studied. Robust TSMC technique was
developed for rigid robotic manipulators in which MIMO terminal switching plane variable vector was rst dened in [18].
In [19], the fast terminal dynamics was proposed and used in
the design of the sliding-mode control for SISO nonlinear
dynamical systems. The adaptive fuzzy TSMC was proposed for
linear systems with mismatched time-varying uncertainties in
[20]. In [21], TSM tracking control was developed for a class of
nonminimum phase systems with uncertain dynamics. In [19],
the fast terminal dynamics was proposed and used in the design
of the sliding-mode control for SISO nonlinear dynamical
systems. Output regulation of nonlinear systems with delay
was studied using TSMC in [22]. In [23], the design of variable
structure control with terminal sliding modes was developed for
multi-input uncertain linear systems. TSMC was proposed for
uncertain dynamic systems with pure-feedback form in [24].
In the most of existing research results, the upper boundary
of external disturbances is directly used to design TSMC.
To explore the information about the characteristic of external
disturbances, the disturbance observer can be used to estimate
the system external disturbance.

0019-0578/$ - see front matter & 2012 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2012.09.009

Please cite this article as: Chen M, et al. Terminal sliding mode tracking control for a class of SISO uncertain nonlinear systems. ISA
Transactions (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2012.09.009

M. Chen et al. / ISA Transactions ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

In recent years, various design technologies of disturbance

observers have been intensively studied [2528]. In these literatures, the disturbance observers were used to approximate
external disturbance, and robust control were designed based
on the output of disturbance observers. In [25,26], fuzzy disturbance observer was proposed and its application was studied
for discrete-time and continuous-time systems. The general
framework was given for nonlinear systems subject to disturbances using disturbance observer based control (DOBC) techniques [27]. The nonlinear PID predictive control was proposed
based on disturbance observers in [28]. In [29], the nonlinear
disturbance observer was proposed for multivariable minimumphase systems with arbitrary relative degrees. The nonlinear
disturbance observer for robotic manipulators was developed in
[30]. In [31], composite disturbance-observer-based control and
TSMC were investigated for uncertain structural systems. In [32],
the nonlinear disturbance observer-based approach was proposed
for longitudinal dynamics of a missile. The disturbance attenuation and rejection problem was investigated for a class of
MIMO nonlinear systems using DOBC framework in [33]. In
[34], composite DOBC and H1 control were proposed for complex
continuous models. Composite DOBC and TSMC were studied for
nonlinear systems with disturbances in [35]. In [36], sliding mode
synchronization control was proposed for uncertain chaotic
systems using disturbance observer. Robust DOBC was presented
for time delay uncertain systems in [37]. In [38], sliding mode
control was developed for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems
based on disturbance observer. To guarantee the approximation
error of disturbance observer converge to zero in the nite time,
the terminal sliding mode disturbance observer is developed in
this paper.
On the other hand, the various control input constraints will
degrade the control system performance which attract the attention of many researchers. Adaptive fuzzy output feedback control
was proposed for the uncertain nonlinear systems with unknown
backlash-like hysteresis in [39]. In [40], adaptive fuzzy output
feedback tracking backstepping control was presented for strictfeedback nonlinear systems with unknown dead zones. The
control input saturation is the most important non-smooth
nonlinearity which should be explicitly considered in the control
design. In [4145], the analysis and design of control systems
with input saturation constraints have been studied. Robust
adaptive neural network control was proposed for a class of
uncertain MIMO nonlinear systems with input nonlinearities
[41]. In [42], the neural network tracking control was developed
for ocean surface vessels with input saturation. Hover control was
studied for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with backstepping
design including input saturations in [43]. In [44], robust stability
analysis and fuzzy-scheduling control were developed for nonlinear systems subject to actuator saturation. Globally stable
adaptive control was presented for minimum phase SISO plants
with input saturation [45]. The nonlinear control was proposed to
achieve the attitude maneuver of a three-axis stabilized exible
spacecraft with control input nonlinearity [46]. Furthermore, the
control system design becomes more complicated if the nonlinear
system exists the control singularity. Thus, the robust tracking
control needs to be further developed for the uncertain nonlinear
system with control singularity case and unknown nonsymmetric input saturation. In this paper, the terminal sliding
mode tracking control is developed using disturbance observer
technique for the uncertain nonlinear system with the control
singularity and unknown non-symmetric input saturation.
This work is motivated by the terminal sliding mode tracking
control of nonlinear systems with external disturbance, control
singularity and unknown input saturation. The organization of
the paper is as follows. Section 2 details the problem formulation.

The terminal sliding mode disturbance observer is proposed in

Section 3. Section 4 presents the terminal sliding mode tracking
control based on the disturbance observer. Terminal sliding mode
tracking control is designed for uncertain nonlinear systems with
control singularity and input saturation in Section 5. Simulation
studies are shown in Section 6 to demonstrate the effectiveness of
our proposed approaches, followed by some concluding remarks
in Section 7.

2. Problem formulation
Consider the uncertain SISO nonlinear system described in the
form of
x_ i xi 1 , i 1,2, . . . ,n1
x_ n f x gxu d
y x1

1
T

where x x1 ,x2 , . . . ,xn  is the system measurable state, f x A R

and gx A R are known nonlinear functions, respectively, u A R is
the system control input, y A R is the system output and d A R is
the external disturbance, respectively.
To proceed the design of terminal sliding mode control for the
uncertain SISO nonlinear system (1), the following assumption
and lemma are required:
Lemma 1 (Man and Yu [17]). Assume that there exists the continuous positive denite function V(t) which satises the following
inequality:
V_ t aVt lV g t r0,

8t 4 t 0

then V(t) converges to the equilibrium point in nite time ts

t s rt 0

1
aV 1g t0 l
ln
a1 g
l

where a 40, l 4 0 and 0 o g o1.

In this paper, the control objective is to design the
disturbance-observer-based terminal sliding mode tracking control and make the system output follow a given desired output of
the nonlinear system in the presence of input saturation, control
singularity and external disturbance. For the desired system
output yd, the proposed terminal sliding mode control must
ensure that all closed-loop signals are convergent in the nite
time.
Assumption 1 (Tee and Ge [47]). For all t 4 0, there exists Di 40
such that Jyi
tJ r Di , i 1,2, . . . ,n.
d
3. Design of disturbance observer with nite time
convergence ability
In this section, the design process of the terminal sliding
mode observer will be given. To design a sliding mode disturbance observer with nite time convergence property, the following auxiliary variable is introduced:
s zxn

where z is given by
z_ ksb signsesp0 =q0 9f x9 signs gxu

where q0 and p0 are odd positive integers with p0 oq0 . Design

parameters k, b and e are positive and b 49d9.
The terminal sliding mode disturbance estimate d^ is given by
d^ ksb signsesp0 =q0 9f x9 signsf x

Please cite this article as: Chen M, et al. Terminal sliding mode tracking control for a class of SISO uncertain nonlinear systems. ISA
Transactions (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2012.09.009

M. Chen et al. / ISA Transactions ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

For each si, we have

Differentiating (4), and considering (1) and (5) yield

s_ z_ x_ n
ksb signsesp0 =q0 9f x9 signsf xd

Theorem 1. Considering the uncertain SISO nonlinear system (1),

the terminal sliding mode disturbance observer is designed according
to (4)(6). Then, the disturbance approximation error of the proposed
terminal sliding mode disturbance observer is convergent in the nite
time.

d
pi1 =qi1
a s bi1 si1

dt i1 i1
d pi1 =qi1
s i1 ai1 s_ i1 bi1 si1
dt

s_ i s i1

Thus, the jth-order derivative of si is

j

j 1
sij si1

dt

i1
ai1 si1 bi1 si1

V o 12s2

s_ n sn
1

n1
X

aj sjnj

j1

r ks bs signses

p0 q0 =q0

9f x9 signsf xd

s_ n x_ n yn

9s9 9d9

r 2kV o 2

n1
X

n1
X

0 q0 =2q0
eV p
o

Invoking (1) and (4)(6), we obtain

^
d~ dd
ksb signsesp0 =q0 9f x9 signsf xd
ksb signsesp0 =q0 9f x9 signsf xx_ n f x gxu
10

Remark 1. As the same as the design of existing sliding mode

disturbance observers [48,49], the proposed terminal sliding
mode disturbance observer still requires that the external disturbance d has a known upper boundary, i.e., b 49d9. Comparing
with the existing results, the proposed terminal sliding mode
disturbance observer can guarantee the disturbance estimate
error to converge to zero in the nite time.
4. Terminal sliding mode tracking control design
In this section, we develop the tracking control scheme for the
case where all states are available using terminal sliding mode
control approach. To develop the terminal sliding mode tracking
control, we dene

yn
d

p =q
s j j
nj j

s_

16

bj

nj

dt

p =q
sj j
nj j

aj sjnj

j1

n1
X

s_

bj

j1

nj

dt

p =q
sj j
nj j

s_

17

Without loss of generality, we assume that gx a0 [50] in

this section. The singular case will be considered in the next
section. Then, the disturbance-observer-based terminal sliding
mode tracking control is designed as
u

u0
gx

u0 f xydn

n1
X

aj sjnj

n1
X
j1

bj

nj

dt

p =q
sj j
nj j

p =qn

d^ dsn msnn

18
where d 4 0 and m 4 0.
The above design procedure of the terminal sliding mode
control can be summarized in the following theorem, which
contains the results for disturbance-observer-based terminal
sliding mode tracking control of uncertain nonlinear systems
with external disturbance.
Theorem 2. Considering the uncertain nonlinear system (1) with the
external disturbance and assuming full state information available, the
terminal sliding mode disturbance observer is designed as (4)(6).
Under the proposed terminal sliding mode tracking control (18), all
signals of the closed-loop system are convergent in the nite time.
Proof. Substituting (18) into (17) yields
p =q
s_ n dsn msnn n dd^ s_
p =q
dsn ms n n d~ s_
n

19

Invoking (10), we obtain

p =q
s_ n dsn msnn n

20

11

The nth time derivative of s1 is given by

n

dt

n1
X

j1

According to Lemma 1 and (9), we can know that the auxiliary

variable s converges to the equilibrium point in the nite time.
Due to the nite time convergence property of the auxiliary
variable s, we can conclude that the disturbance approximation
error d~ of the proposed disturbance observer is convergent in the
nite time. This concludes the proof. &

sn
1

15

nj

j1

s1 yyd

n1
X

aj sjnj

f x gxu dyn
d

ksb signsesp0 =q0 9f x9 signs gxux_ n

z_ x_ n s_

bj

j1

j1

r ks esp0 q0 =q0

p0 q0 =2q0

Considering (1) and (12), we have

The time derivative of Vo is given by

V_ o ss_ sksb signses

=qi1

In accordance with (12)(15), the derivative of sn is

Proof. Consider the Lyapunov function candidate

p0 =q0

14

x_ n ydn

Consider the Lyapunov function candidate

12

Considering (12), the recursive procedure for TSMC of uncertain nonlinear systems (1) is written as [19]
p =q1

s2 s_ 1 a1 s1 b1 s11

V 12s2n

21

Invoking (9) and (20), the time derivative of V is

p q =q
V_ r ds2n msn n n n

p =q2

s3 s_ 2 a2 s2 b2 s22
^

r 2dVm2pn qn =2qn V pn qn =2qn

p

n1
sn s_ n1 an1 sn1 bn1 sn1

=qn1

13

where ai 4 0 and bi 40. pi and qi , i 1,2, . . . ,n 1 are positive odd

integers with pi oqi .

22

According to Lemma 1 and (22), we can know that all closedloop signals converge to the equilibrium point in the nite time.
This concludes the proof. &

Please cite this article as: Chen M, et al. Terminal sliding mode tracking control for a class of SISO uncertain nonlinear systems. ISA
Transactions (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2012.09.009

M. Chen et al. / ISA Transactions ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

Remark 2. Although the known upper boundary of the external

disturbance is required in the design of disturbance observer, the
boundary of the external disturbance does not directly utilize to
design tracking control scheme. Furthermore, the output of
terminal sliding mode disturbance observer is used to design
terminal sliding mode tracking control (18). Thus, the proposed
disturbance-observer-based terminal sliding mode tracking
control can explore the information about the characteristic of
disturbances. It is worth to point out that sn in (13) has an
additional term s. The reason is that s should be considered in the
sliding mode surface sn to analyze the stability of the whole
closed-loop system.
5. Terminal sliding mode control design for uncertain
nonlinear systems with control singularity and input
saturation

where v is the designed control input command. umin and umax are
the unknown parameters of control input saturation. Here,
umin a umax denotes the non-symmetric input saturation.
For further facilitate analyze the integrated effect of the
control singularity and unknown non-symmetric input saturation, the robust tracking control command is given by
24

30

where z is given by
z_ ksb signsesp0 =q0 9f x9 signs vr

25

^ ksb signsesp0 =q0 9f x9 signsf x

D

32

^ is the estimate of compound disturbance D and b Z 9D9.

where D
Based on the output of the terminal sliding mode disturbance,
the terminal sliding mode tracking control is designed as
n1
X

aj sjnj 

j1

n1
X

bj

j1

nj

dt

p =q
^ dsn 
s j j D
nj j

mspnn =qn
33

where ai 4 0 , bi 4 0, d 4 0 and m 40.

The above design procedure and analysis can be summarized
in the following theorem, which contains the results for the
uncertain nonlinear system (1) with the control singularity case
and unknown non-symmetric input saturation.
Theorem 3. Consider the uncertain SISO nonlinear system (1) with
the external disturbance and suppose full state information is
available. The terminal sliding mode disturbance observer is designed
as (30)(32). The terminal sliding mode tracking control is decided
by (24) and (33). Under the proposed terminal sliding mode tracking
control, all signals of the closed-loop system are convergent in the
nite time.
Proof. Substituting (33) into (29) yields
p =q
^ s_
s_ n dsn msnn n DD
pn =qn
~
D s_
dsn msn

34

~ considering (30)(32), we have

Similar with d,
35

Thus, (34) can be rewritten as

p =q
s_ n dsn msnn n

Substituting (24) into (1), we obtain

31

Based on (30) and (31), the terminal sliding mode disturbance

^ is given by
estimate D

~ s_
D

where t 4 0 is a design parameter and vr will be given later.

It is clear that
g 2 xg 2 x t1 1tg 2 x t1

s zxn

vr f x ydn 

In Section 4, we assume gx a 0 for the uncertain nonlinear

system (1). However, there exists the feasibility of gx 0 at a
moment in the practical system which leads to the control
singularity. On the other hand, input saturation as the most
important non-smooth nonlinearity should be explicitly considered in the control design. Thus, we propose the terminal sliding
mode tracking control for the uncertain nonlinear system (1)
with control singularity case and unknown non-symmetric input
saturation in this section. Considering the unknown input saturation constraints, the control input u is given by
8
if v 4 umax
>
< umax
if umin r v r umax
u v
23
>
: u
if v o umin
min

v gxg 2 x t1 vr

Due to the unknown compound disturbance D, the terminal

sliding mode disturbance observer needs to be developed to
estimate it. Thus, the same auxiliary variable is introduced:

36

x_ n f x gxv Du d
f x vr d gxDutg 2 x t1 vr

26

where Du uv.
Since the upper and the lower limits of the non-symmetric
input saturation are unknown. Hence, Du is unknown. To handle
the unknown Du, we dene the compound disturbance as
D d gxDutg 2 x e1 vr

27

x_ n f x vr D

p q =q
V_ rds2n msn n n n

38

28

Similarly, the recursive procedure for TSMC of uncertain nonlinear systems (1) with the control singularity case and unknown
non-symmetric input saturation is designed as (11)(17). Invoking (17) and (28), we have
n1
X

37

Considering (9) and (36), the time derivative of V is given by

r 2dVm2pn qn =2qn V pn qn =2qn

Considering (27), we obtain

s_ n x_ n ydn

Consider the Lyapunov function candidate

V 12s2n

aj sjnj

j1

f x vr Dyn

n1
X
j1

n1
X
j1

nj

bj

dt

p =q
sj j
nj j

aj sjnj

n1
X
j1

bj

s_

nj

dt

p =q
s j j
nj j

s_

29

According to Lemma 1 and (38), we know that all closed-loop

signals converge to the equilibrium point in the nite time. This
concludes the proof. &
Remark 3. From (27), the integrated effects of control singularity
and unknown non-symmetric input saturation are treated as a
part of the external disturbance which is approximated using the
terminal sliding mode disturbance observer (30)(32). Although
the uncertain nonlinear system (1) has the feasibility of control
singularity and unknown non-symmetric input saturation,
Lyapunov analysis shows that the trajectory of the closed-loop

Please cite this article as: Chen M, et al. Terminal sliding mode tracking control for a class of SISO uncertain nonlinear systems. ISA
Transactions (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2012.09.009

M. Chen et al. / ISA Transactions ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

system is asymptotically convergent in the nite time under the

proposed disturbance-observer-based terminal sliding mode
tracking control. In general, the design parameter b should be
chosen as a large positive constant to guarantee the design
requirement of the proposed sliding mode disturbance observer.

2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5

6. Simulation study

In this section, simulation results are given to illustrate the

effectiveness of the proposed control techniques using two
different examples.

0.5

0.2

0.1

1.5

6.1. Simulation example for Van der Pol circuits system

Let us consider the following Van der Pol circuits system [50]

0.2 0.4
Time [s]

2.5
0

10

15

20

x_ 1 x2
y x1

39
p
where the external disturbance d 2 sin0:1pt 3 sin0:2 t 1.
Following, the extensive simulation to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed terminal sliding mode tracking control.
To proceed the design of terminal sliding mode disturbance
observer and terminal sliding mode tracking control, the design
parameters are chosen as k 2500, b 4, e 0:5, p0 5, q0 9,
a1 50, b1 0:5, p1 p2 5, q1 q2 7, d 60 and m 0:8.
The initial state conditions are arbitrarily chosen as x0 0:1,
^ 0. The desired trajectory is taken as
x2 0:2, d^ 0:2 and D
yd 2 sin0:2t.

35

40

45

50

Fig. 1. Output x1 (solid line) follows desired trajectory yd (dashed line) without
input saturation for Van der Pol circuits system.

0.02
Tracking error using the approach developed in [38]
Tracking error using the approach developed in this paper

0.015
0.01
0.005
0

s1

x_ 2 2x1 31x21 x2 u d

25
30
Time [s]

0.005
0.01

6.1.1. Without considering input saturation for Van der Pol circuits
system
In this subsection, we do not consider the control input
saturation. The terminal sliding mode disturbance observer and
the terminal sliding mode tracking control are given by

0.015
0.02
0

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Time [s]

s zx2
z_ ksb signsesp0 =q0 92x1 31x21 x2 9 signs u

Fig. 2. Tacking errors without input saturation for Van der Pol circuits system.

s1 x1 yd
p =q1

s2 s_ 1 a1 s1 b1 s11

200

150

d^ ksb signsesp0 =q0 92x1 31x21 x2 9 signs

100

2x1 31x21 x2
p =q2

^ ds ms 2
d
2
2

50

40

Under the proposed disturbance-observer-based terminal sliding mode tracking control (40), from Figs. 1 and 2, we can observe
that the tracking performance is satisfactory and the tracking
error quickly converge to zero in a short nite time for the
uncertain nonlinear system (39) in the presence of the timevarying external disturbance. To show the good control performance of the proposed control terminal sliding mode control, we
compare the control performance under the developed control
approach with the developed disturbance-observer-based sliding
mode control in [38]. The comparison result is presented in Fig. 2
which illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme
and can obtain better control performance. According to Fig. 3, we
can see that the control input is bounded and convergent.
The disturbance estimate output and the disturbance estimate
error are presented in Figs. 4 and 5, respectively. Based on these
simulation results, we can obtain that the proposed disturbanceobserver-based terminal sliding mode tracking control is valid for
the uncertain nonlinear system with the time-varying external
disturbance.

0
u

p =q1

u 2x1 31x21 x2 y d a1 s_ 1 b1 s_ 11

50
100
150
200
250
300
0

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Time [s]
Fig. 3. Control input without input saturation for Van der Pol circuits system.

6.1.2. Considering input saturation for Van der Pol circuits system
To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed terminal sliding
mode tracking control for the Van der Pol circuits system with
input saturation constraint, the saturation values is given by
umax 15:0, umin 20 in the simulation study. The terminal

Please cite this article as: Chen M, et al. Terminal sliding mode tracking control for a class of SISO uncertain nonlinear systems. ISA
Transactions (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2012.09.009

M. Chen et al. / ISA Transactions ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

sliding mode disturbance observer and the terminal sliding mode

tracking control are designed as

2.5

s zx2

z_ ksb signsesp0 =q0 92x1 31x21 x2 9 signs vr

1.5
1

0.5

s1 x1 yd
0

1
2
Time [s]

p =q1

s2 s_ 1 a1 s1 b1 s11

^ ksb signsesp0 =q0 92x1 31x2 x2 9 signs

D
1
2x1 31x21 x2

p =q1

vr 2x1 31x21 x2 y d a1 s_ 1 b1 s_ 11

1

0
0

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Time [s]
Fig. 4. The disturbance estimate output d^ (solid line) and the disturbance d
(dashed line).

41

The tracking results of the uncertain nonlinear system with

input saturation are shown in Figs. 6 and 7 under the disturbanceobserver-based terminal sliding mode tracking control (40).
Although, there exists the non-symmetric input saturation and
the time-varying external disturbance, the tracking performance
is still satisfactory and the tracking error converges to zero.
The control input is shown in Fig. 8 and the non-symmetric input
saturation of the control input signal is observed. On the other
1

0.25

0.8

0.2

0.6
0.15

0.4

0.1

0.2
s1

Disturbance estimate error

p =q2

d^ ds2 ms22

0.05

0
0.2

0.4
0.05

0.6

0.1

0.8
1
0

10

15

20

25
30
Time [s]

35

40

45

50

Fig. 5. The disturbance estimate error.

10

15

20

25
30
Time [s]

35

40

45

50

Fig. 7. Tacking errors with input saturation for Van der Pol circuits system.

2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
0

10

15

20

25
Time [s]

30

35

40

45

50

Fig. 6. Output x1 (solid line) follows desired trajectory yd (dashed line) with input saturation for Van der Pol circuits system.

Please cite this article as: Chen M, et al. Terminal sliding mode tracking control for a class of SISO uncertain nonlinear systems. ISA
Transactions (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2012.09.009

M. Chen et al. / ISA Transactions ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

20

200

15

150

10

100

50

0
u

5
50

10
100

15

150

20

200

25
0

10

15

20

25
30
Time [s]

35

40

45

50

10

15

20

25
30
Time [s]

35

40

45

50

Fig. 11. Control input without input saturation for dufng forced oscillation
systems.

Fig. 8. Control input with input saturation for Van der Pol circuits system.

1.5

1.5

1
1

0.5

0.5
0

0.5

0.5

1.5

1.5
2
0

10

15

20

25
30
Time [s]

35

40

45

50

Fig. 9. Output x1 (solid line) follows desired trajectory yd (dashed line) without
input saturation for dufng forced oscillation systems.

0.4

10

15

20

25
30
Time [s]

35

40

45

50

Fig. 12. Output x1 (solid line) follows desired trajectory yd (dashed line) with
input saturation for dufng forced oscillation systems.

Tracking error using the approach developed in this paper

Tracking error using the approach developed in [38]

0.25

0.3

0.2
0.15

0.2

S1

s1

0.1
0.1

0.05
0

0.05
0.1

0.1
0.2
0

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Time [s]
Fig. 10. Tacking errors without input saturation for dufng forced oscillation
systems.

10

15

20

25 30
Time [s]

35

40

45

50

Fig. 13. Tacking errors with input saturation for dufng forced oscillation systems.

Please cite this article as: Chen M, et al. Terminal sliding mode tracking control for a class of SISO uncertain nonlinear systems. ISA
Transactions (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2012.09.009

M. Chen et al. / ISA Transactions ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

10
8
6
4

2
0
2
4
6
8
10
0

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Time [s]
Fig. 14. Control input with input saturation for dufng forced oscillation systems.

hand, the chattering phenomena appear in the input control

signals which are excited by the sliding mode.
6.2. Simulation example of dufng forced oscillation systems
Consider the dufng forced oscillation system as [2]
x_ 1 x2
x_ 2 0:1x2 x31 12 cost u d
y x1

42

where the external disturbance d 1:5 sin0:2t 2 cos0:2t 1.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of the terminal sliding mode
disturbance observer and terminal sliding mode tracking control,
all design parameters are chosen as k 2500, b 4, e 0:5, p0 5,
q0 9, a1 50, b1 0:5, p1 p2 5, q1 q2 7, d 60 and
m 0:8. The initial state conditions are arbitrarily chosen as
^ 0. The desired trajectory is
x0 0:2, x2 0, d^ 0:4 and D
considered as yd 0:8sint sin0:5t.
6.2.1. Without considering input saturation for dufng forced
oscillation systems
In this subsection, the control input saturation is not considered for the dufng forced oscillation system. The terminal sliding
mode disturbance observer is designed as (4)(6). In accordance
with (18), the proposed terminal sliding mode tracking control
is designed. Under the proposed disturbance-observer-based
terminal sliding mode tracking control scheme, from Figs. 9
and 10, the satisfactory tracking performance is observed and
the tracking error can quickly converge to zero for the dufng
forced oscillation system (42) in the presence of the time-varying
external disturbance. To show the better control performance of
the proposed terminal sliding mode control, the comparison
control performance under the developed control approach with
the developed disturbance-observer-based sliding mode control
in [38] is shown in Fig. 10. The comparison results show that the
proposed control scheme can obtain better control performance.
From Fig. 11, the control input is presented and the convergence
is noticed. In accordance with these simulation results, we

can conclude that the proposed disturbance-observer-based

terminal sliding mode tracking control is valid for the dufng
forced oscillation system (42) with the time-varying external
disturbance.
6.2.2. Considering input saturation for dufng forced oscillation
systems
In this subsection, the effectiveness of the proposed terminal
sliding mode tracking control will be shown for the dufng forced
oscillation system (42) with input saturation constraint and
unknown external disturbance. In this simulation, the saturation
values are given by umax 10:0 and umin 9:5. The terminal sliding
mode disturbance observer is designed as (30)(32). The terminal
sliding mode tracking control is decided by (24) and (33).
The tracking results of the uncertain nonlinear system with input
saturation are shown in Figs. 12 and 13 under the disturbanceobserver-based terminal sliding mode tracking control (40).
Although, there exists the non-symmetric input saturation and the
time-varying external disturbance, the tracking performance is still
satisfactory and the tracking error converges to zero quickly.
The control input is shown in Fig. 14 and the non-symmetric input
saturation of the control input signal is observed.
From these simulation results of two cases, we can obtain that
the developed terminal sliding mode control scheme based on
disturbance observer is valid. And the developed terminal sliding
mode disturbance observer can modify the control performance
of the terminal sliding mode control.

7. Conclusion
In this paper, the disturbance-observer-based terminal sliding
mode tracking control has been proposed for a class of uncertain
nonlinear systems. To improve the ability of the disturbance
attenuation and system performance robustness, the terminal
sliding mode disturbance observer has been developed to approximate the system disturbance in the nite time. Based on the
output of the disturbance observer, the disturbance-observerbased terminal sliding mode tracking control has been presented

Please cite this article as: Chen M, et al. Terminal sliding mode tracking control for a class of SISO uncertain nonlinear systems. ISA
Transactions (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2012.09.009

M. Chen et al. / ISA Transactions ] (]]]]) ]]]]]]

for the uncertain nonlinear system with the non-symmetric input

saturation and the time-varying external disturbance. The stability of the closed-loop system has been proved using rigorous
Lyapunov analysis. Finally, simulation results have been used to
illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed robust terminal sliding
mode tracking control scheme.
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Please cite this article as: Chen M, et al. Terminal sliding mode tracking control for a class of SISO uncertain nonlinear systems. ISA
Transactions (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2012.09.009