A combined backstepping and small-gain approach to robust adaptive fuzzy control for strict-feedback nonlinear systems

In this paper, a robust adaptive tracking control problem is discussed for a general class of strict-feedback uncertain nonlinear systems. The systems may possess a wide class of uncertainties referred to as unstructured uncertainties, which are not linearly parameterized and do not have any prior knowledge of the bounding functions. The Takagi-Sugeno type fuzzy logic systems are used to approximate the uncertainties. A unified and systematic procedure is employed to derive two kinds of novel robust adaptive tracking controllers by use of the input-to-state stability (ISS) and by combining the backstepping technique and generalized small gain approach. One is the robust adaptive fuzzy tracking controller (RAFTC) for the system without input gain uncertainty. The other is the robust adaptive fuzzy sliding tracking controller (RAFSTC) for the system with input gain uncertainty. Both algorithms have two advantages, those are, semi-global uniform ultimate boundedness of adaptive control system in the presence of unstructured uncertainties and the adaptive mechanism with minimal learning parameterizations. Four application examples, including a pendulum system with motor, a one-link robot, a ship roll stabilization with actuator and a single-link manipulator with flexible joint, are used to demonstrate the effectiveness and performance of proposed schemes.