Abstract
During the past three decades since V. I. Utkin published his survey paper “Variable
structure systems with sliding modes” in the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control
in 1977, significant interest in variable structure systems (VSS) and sliding mode
control (SMC) has been generated in the control research community worldwide. It
has been claimed that the discontinuous control action results in superb system performance
which includes insensitivity to parameter variations and complete rejection
of disturbances. Due to this virtue, sliding mode control has been widely applied
and research on sliding mode control theory is greatly motivated as challenges and
demands grow. It is noticed that a variety of improved sliding mode control schemes
have been invented which possess additional desirable characteristics. In this thesis,
the author would like to report explorations on advanced sliding mode control laws
and their applications. The advanced sliding mode schemes covered in this thesis are:
higher order sliding mode control, integral sliding mode control and terminal sliding
mode control. Also, application of traditional sliding mode control and integral sliding
mode control methods to fuzzy systems are also included. This provides an elegant
way of designing controllers feasibly for nonlinear systems.