A sliding-mode approach to fuzzy control design

This study develops a method for fuzzy control design with sliding modes in which robustness is inherent. Fuzzy control is formulated to become a class of variable structure system (VSS) control. Sliding modes are used to determine best values for parameters in fuzzy control rules, thereby robustness in fuzzy control can be improved. A switching manifold is prescribed and the phase trajectory is demanded to satisfy both the reaching condition and the sliding condition for sliding modes. Both computer simulations and experiments are carried out for an apparatus which can to some extent represent cornering motion of a motorcycle on which a rider leans to maintain stability. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms both proportional integral derivative (PID) control and neural-network-based fuzzy control.