Sliding Mode control Lab

The Sliding Mode Control (SMC) is classified in the monitoring with Variable System Structure which has been the object of multiple studies for about 50 years. The first works on this kind of systems are those of Anosov , Emelyanov and Tzypkin in the former USSR, or those of Hamel in France. This research made new great strides at the end of the 70s when Utkin introduced the theory of the sliding mode. In fact, the SMC has proved its effectiveness through the theoretical studies. Its principal scopes of application are robotics and the electrical engines such as the solar tracker.

The advantage of such a control which makes it very used in tracking problems is its robustness through the disturbances and the uncertainties of the model. Indeed, using SMC, to make certain the convergence of the system to the wished state, a high level of the control is often requested. In control theory, SMC is an approach that alters the dynamics of nonlinear system by the application of a discontinuous control which forces the system to converge along a cross-section of the systems' behavior.

The SMC law is not a continuous function of time; it can switch from one continuous structure to another one based on the current position in the state space. In continuous time, the control input is updated continuously so that the sliding function sign is opposite to the sign of its derivative. In this way, for SMC, Lyapunov stability method is applied to keep the nonlinear system under control. The sliding mode approach is a method which reduces the system's order. In that way, simple control algorithm could be applied this is very straight forward and robust.

The Sliding Mode Control Lab will focus on Team working and collection of new research related to the SMC. Other ways this Lab will be a data base for researchers to have contact and make more collaboration and learn from each other about the new techniques of Sliding Mode application.

SMC is a hot subject used in many fields especially in electrical engineering and robotics. Our vision is to bring together this approach (SMC) with other approaches and try to apply it in some real physic systems. Also, try to make some analogy between SMC for continuous and discrete systems.