International Journal of Systems Science

Vol. 44, No. 4, April 2013, 750–759

Output feedback sliding mode control under networked environment

Jinhui Zhangab*, James Lamc and Yuanqing Xiaa
a
School of Automation, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China; bCollege of Information Science &
Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China; cDepartment of Mechanical Engineering,
The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
(Received 12 April 2011; final version received 11 August 2011)

This article considers the problem of sliding mode output feedback control for networked control systems
(NCSs). The key idea is to make use of not only the current and previous measurements, but also previous inputs
for the reconstruction of the state variables. Using this idea, sliding mode controllers are designed for systems
with constant or time-varying network delay. The approach is not only more practical but also easy to
implement. To illustrate this, the design technique is applied to an inverted pendulum system.
Keywords: discrete-time systems; networked control systems; sliding mode control

1. Introduction new reaching condition was established, which reflects

It is well known that sliding mode control (SMC) has
been successfully applied to control continuous-time
systems (Edwards and Spurgeon 1998). The long
history of its development and theoretical results
have been reported since 1950s. The essential merit of
SMC is their fast response, good transient perfor-
mance, insensitivity for matched parameter uncertain-
ties and external disturbances, see Burton and Zinober
(1986), Xia and Jia (2003), Basin, Gonzalez, Acosta,
and Fridman (2005), Niu and Ho (2006), Yan and
Edwards (2008), Basin, Ferreira, and Fridman (2007),
Ho and Niu (2007), Yan, Spurgeon, and Edwards
(2010a,b), Niu, Ho, and Wang (2007), Lian, Zhao, and
Dimirovski (2008), Wu and Gao (2008), Wu and
Zheng (2009), Wu and Ho (2010) and Zhang and Xia
(2010) and the references therein. With the widespread
use of digital controllers and discrete-time samplers of
the physical implementation of controllers, many
investigators have paid serious attention to the design
of discrete-time sliding-mode controllers (see, e.g.
Furuta 1990; Gao, Wang, and Homaifa 1995). In
Furuta (1990) used the equivalent form of a Lyapunov-
type continuous reaching condition to give the discrete
version of the SMC. However, it is worth pointing out
that discrete SMC cannot be obtained from the
continuous counterpart by means of a simple equiva-
lence. Different from continuous-time SMC, the
motion of a discrete-time SMC system can approach
the switching surface but cannot stay in practice (Gao
et al. 1995). Thus, Gao et al. (1995) defined the quasi-
sliding mode and the quasi-sliding mode band, and a
all the specific properties of the reaching process
occurring in discrete-time SMC systems. The algorithm
proposed in Gao et al. (1995) has been further
discussed in Bartoszewicz (1996), where an additional
condition for the existence of the quasi-sliding mode
was established. In Bartoszewicz (1998), Bartoszewicz
proposed a different reaching law, and the reaching
law was based on the concept of time-varying switch-
ing surfaces.
Although the above methods have successfully
tackled the problem of discrete-time SMC to a certain
extent, all these approaches are always limited to
systems with full-state feedback which is restrictive for
use in practice. In this situation, some researchers
considered using observers or dynamic compensators,
however it would increase the system complexity.
Moreover, since the static output feedback scheme
possesses a desirable feature without additional
dynamics and is simple to implement, several research
works have considered static output feedback SMC
(see, e.g. Kwan 2001; Edwards and Spurgeon 2003;
Seuret, Edwards, Spurgeon, and Fridman 2009; Zhang
and Xia 2010). However, these control techniques are
always only applicable to continuous-time systems.
Recently, networked control systems (NCSs) have
attracted much attention from the control research
community. The main advantages of NCSs are the
reduced system wiring, ease of system diagnosis and
maintenance and increased system agility. Although
the network environment makes it convenient to
control large distributed systems, it also brings up

*Corresponding author. Email: jinhuizhang82@gmail.com

ISSN 0020–7721 print/ISSN 1464–5319 online

 2013 Taylor & Francis
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207721.2011.618643
http://www.tandfonline.com
 International Journal of Systems Science
many new control issues, which cannot be addressed
using conventional control theory, such as network
delay and data dropout, sampling and transmission
methods. To solve these problems, various methods
have been developed, for example, augmented deter-
ministic discrete-time model, queuing, optimal stochas-
tic control, perturbation, sampling time scheduling,
robust control, fuzzy logic modulation, event-based
control, end-user control adaptation, data packet
dropout analysis, hybrid systems stability analysis
and networked predictive approach see Liu, Xia,
Chen, Rees, and Hu (2007), He, Wang, Ji, and Zhou
(2010), Wang, Yang, Ho, and Liu (2007), Gao, Chen,
and Lam (2008), Yang and Cao (2008), Liu, Ho, and
Niu (2009), Niu, Jia, Wang, and Yang (2009), Liu,
Chai, Mu, and Rees (2008), Yue, Tian, Wang, and
Lam (2009), Zhang, Xie, and Wang (2010), Niu, Ho,
and Wang (2010), Xiong and Lam (2009) and a recent
survey article Hespanha, Naghshtabrizi, and Xu
(2007). As reported in Yu and Kaynak (2009), the
study of SMC for NCSs has just started recently and
little results have been obtained (Ma, Wang, Niu, Bo,
and Guo 2011), which motivates us in this study.
In this article, we consider the problem of sliding
mode output feedback control for NCSs. The main
contributions of this article are as follows: (1) different
from observer-based schemes, we have established a
static output feedback strategy by using the current and
previous measurements, as well as previous inputs, to
reconstruct the state variables; (2) by using a well-
known reaching law, sliding mode controllers have been
designed for systems with constant or
time-varying network delay. Finally, the design techni-
que is illustrated through an inverted pendulum system.
2. Problem formulation
In this section, we will consider the problem of
stabilisation for NCSs, where we assume that the
data are transmitted with a single packet. The
dynamics of the remote-controlled plant is given by
the following multi-input–multi-output (MIMO) dis-
crete system:
xðk þ 1Þ ¼ AxðkÞ þ BuðkÞ,
ð1Þ
yðkÞ ¼ CxðkÞ,
where x(k) 2 Rn is the plant state, u(k) 2 Rm is the
control input, y(k) 2 Rq is the output, A and B are
known matrices with appropriate dimensions.
Moreover, we also assume that A is invertible.
Remark 1: Note that (1) can be considered as
discretised from a continuous-time system given by
_ ¼ FxðtÞ þ GuðtÞ
xðtÞ
751
with sampling period T and
Z T
A ¼ eFT , B¼ eFs dsG:
0
Thus, we can always assume that A is invertible.
In practice, due to the limited bit rate of the
communication channel and unavoidable errors or
losses in the transmission, the data packets in NCSs
usually suffer from time delays and data packet
dropout during network transmissions. In the follow-
ing discussion, we need the following assumption.
Assumption 1: At each time step k, the round trip delay
 where d is a
d(k) is bounded, that is, 1  d ðkÞ  d,
positive integer. Furthermore, the number of consecutive
data dropouts is finite.
Remark 2: In a real NCS, based on the commonly
used network protocols, if the data packet does not
arrive at a destination in a certain transmission time, it
means this data packet is lost. From the physical point
of view, it is natural to assume that only a finite
number of consecutive data dropouts can be tolerated
in order that the NCS does not become open loop.
Thus, the number of consecutive data dropouts should
be less than a finite number.
The networked controller is selected as event-driven
sliding mode controller. As long as there is a packet
reaching the controller across the network from the
buffer, the controller calculates the control signal
immediately. After finishing the calculation, the new
control signal is sent to the actuator via the network.
The ZOH is assumed to be both time-driven and
event-driven, and has the capability to compare the
time stamps of the arrived control input packets and
choosing the newest one to control the process. The
actuator is event-driven. The control signal is applied
to the plant as soon as the data packet arrives at the
actuator node.
Remark 3: It is usually assumed that the actuator
always uses the most recent data, that is, the received
packet with the largest time stamp value. At sampling
instant k, u(k) is available and its time stamp is ik, thus
we have ik  k and time delay is d(k) ¼ k  ik. Thus, at
time k þ 1, we have ik  ikþ1  k þ 1, and
d(k)  k þ 1  ikþ1  1 ¼ d(k þ 1)  1, that is, we have
d(k þ 1)  d(k) þ 1. When d(k þ 1) ¼ d(k) þ 1 implies
that data packet dropout occurs.
With the above observations in mind, the NCS can
be modelled as a linear discrete-time system with input
delay d(k):
xðk þ 1Þ ¼ AxðkÞ þ Buðk  d ðkÞÞ, ð2Þ
752 J. Zhang et al.

where x(k) and u(k) are the system state and the Furthermore, according to Sylvester inequality,
control input, respectively. we have
In the next section, we will organise the sliding
 
mode controllers for system (2) with constant or rankðOÞ þ rank Arþ1  n
time-varying network delay. 02 31
CArþ1
B6 CArþ2 7C
B6 7C
B6 .. 7C
 rankB
B6
6 . 7C
7C
3. Main results B6 7C
@4 CA1 5A
This section considers the networked sliding mode
C
controller design of NCSs. For simplicity, we first  
consider the case that network delay being constant,  minfrankðOÞ, rank Arþ1 g
and then the obtained results are extended to the case
of the time-varying network delay. which follows that
02 31
CArþ1
B6 CArþ2 7C
B6 7C
3.1. SMC for NCS with constant network delay B6 .. 7C
B6
rankB6 . 7C ¼ n:
7C
In this subsection, we assume the network delay d(k) is B6 7C
@4 CA1 5A
constant, that is, d(k) ¼ d. Thus, system (2) becomes
C
xðk þ 1Þ ¼ AxðkÞ þ Buðk  d Þ: ð3Þ
Then, it can be verified that rank(Q) ¼ n. This
Furthermore, we assume that the measurement equa- completes the proof. œ
tion is
Now we have the following result.
yðkÞ ¼ CxðkÞ: ð4Þ Theorem 1: Consider the NCS (2) with constant
delay d. Under the following networked sliding mode
Before presenting our main result, we need the
controller (5), the trajectory of the closed-loop system
following lemma. First, we define the following two
will be driven into a quasi-sliding band in finite time and
matrices:
remain in a residual set of the origin.
2 3 2 3
C C  1
6 CA 7 6 CA1 7 uc ðkÞ ¼ ðcT BÞ1 ðcT A  ðI  qTÞcT Þ QT Q QT ðyðkÞ

6 7 6 7
6 2 7 6 2 7   d  1ÞÞ
þ Huðk
6
O¼6 CA 7, 6
Q¼6 CA 7:
7 7
6 .. 7 6 .. 7  "ðcT BÞ1 TsgnðsðkÞÞ: ð5Þ
4 . 5 4 . 5
CAr1 CArþ1 Proof: It is easy to see that
Lemma 1: If A is invertible and (A, C) is observable,
then there exists an integer r  n such that rank(Q) ¼ n. yðk  1Þ ¼ CA1 ðxðkÞ  Buðk  d  1ÞÞ,
Proof: Since (A, C) is observable, there exists an yðk  2Þ ¼ CA1 ðxðk  1Þ  Buðk  d  2ÞÞ,
integer r  n such that the following equality holds:
¼ CA2 xðkÞ  CA2 Buðk  d  1Þ
rankðOÞ ¼ n:
 CA1 Buðk  d  2Þ,
Considering A is invertible, the following equality
..
holds: .
2 3 X
r1
CArþ1
6 CArþ2 7 yðk  r þ 1Þ ¼ CArþ1 xðkÞ  CAj Buðk  d  r þ j Þ:
6 7 j¼1
6 .. 7
6 . 7 ¼ OArþ1 :
6 7 Thus, we have
6 7
4 CA1 5
C 
yðkÞ   d  1Þ,
¼ QxðkÞ  Huðk ð6Þ
 International Journal of Systems Science 753

where Remark 4: According to Lemma 1, it can be seen that

2 3 there exists an integer r  n such that Q is a full column
yðkÞ rank matrix, thus QTQ is nonsingular, and (QTQ)1QT
6 7 is the left inverse of Q. Furthermore, the integer r can
6 yðk  1Þ 7
6 7 be seen as the buffer length. From the linear system
6 7

yðkÞ ¼6 yðk  2Þ 7, theory, we can select the minimum integer r such that
6 7
6 .. 7 Q is invertible, so that a minimum buffer is
6 . 7
4 5 implemented.
yðk  r þ 1Þ
2 3 Remark 5: To implement the sliding mode controller,
uðk  d  1Þ we need to select appropriate positive parameters "i
6 7 and qi. One constraint is 1  qiT > 0. However, it is
6 uðk  d  2Þ 7
6 7 worth mentioning that different choice of parameters qi
  d  1Þ ¼ 6
uðk .. 7,
6 . 7 and "i will yield different state responses, if qi is too
4 5
uðk  d  r þ 1Þ small, the reaching time will be too long. On the other
2 3 hand, a large qi will cause severe chattering.
0 0  0
6 7 We can now summarise the design procedure into
6 CA1 B 0  0 7
6 7 the following networked SMC design algorithm.
6 7
H¼6 CA2 B CA1 B  0 7,
6 7 Design Procedure (Constant Delay Case):
6 .. .. .. .. 7
6 . . . . 7
4 5 (1) For given system matrices A, B and C, choose
rþ1
CA B CArþ2 B    CA1 B the minimum integer r such that Q is invertible;

(2) Store yðkÞ and u(k  d  1) in buffer, and use
which results in (7) to reconstruct state x(k);
 1 (3) Choose appropriate parameters "i, qi, T, and
xðkÞ ¼ QT Q QT ðyðkÞ
 þ Huðk
  d  1ÞÞ: ð7Þ calculate the controller uc(k) by (5), then send it
Next, we will consider the design of sliding mode and its time stamp to ZOH;
(4) In the ZOH, the newest control input is applied
controller. Let s(k) ¼ cT x(k) be the sliding function
to the plant.
designed so that the system dynamics are stable when
confined to the sliding surface s(k) ¼ 0 and c 2 Rnm.
The design method of a stable sliding surface have been
suggested by Gao et al. (1995). Now, consider the
reaching condition, that is, the reaching law proposed 3.2. SMC for NCS with time-varying network delay
by Gao et al. (1995): This subsection deals with the more general case, that
sðk þ 1Þ ¼ ðI  qTÞsðkÞ  "T sgnðsðkÞÞ, ð8Þ is, the network delay is time-varying.
Now, we have the following result on design sliding
where T is the sampling period, q ¼ diag{qi} 2 mode controller for NCS with time-varying delay.
Rmm, " ¼ diag{"i} 2 Rmm, s(k) ¼ [s1(k), . . . , sm(k)]T,
Theorem 2: Consider the NCS (13) with time-varying
sgn(s(k)) ¼ [sgn(s1(k)), . . . , sgn(sm(k))]T, "i > 0, qi > 0,
delay d(k). Under the following networked sliding mode
1  qiT > 0.
controller (11), the trajectory of the closed-loop system
On the other hand, s(k þ 1) can be expressed as
will be driven into a quasi-sliding band in finite time and
sðk þ 1Þ ¼ cT AxðkÞ þ cT Buc ðkÞ, ð9Þ remain in a residual set of the origin.

where uc(k) represents the current control input at the ut ðkÞ ¼ ðcT BÞ1 ðcT A  ðI  qTÞcT ÞxðkÞ
k-th step. Comparing (8) and (9) leads to the equivalent  "ðcT BÞ1 TsgnðsðkÞÞ, ð11Þ
control given by
where x(k) is given by
T 1 T T
uc ðkÞ ¼ ðc BÞ ðc A  ðI  qTÞc ÞxðkÞ 8 T 1 T
< ðQ QÞ Q ðyðkÞ 
 "ðcT BÞ1 TsgnðsðkÞÞ: ð10Þ , k 5 d
xðkÞ ¼ þHðu^  ðk  1Þ þ u~  ðk  1ÞÞÞ
: T 1 T
Substituting the reconstructed x(k) in (7) into (10) ðQ QÞ Q ðyðkÞ  þ Hu^  ðk  1ÞÞ: k  d
yields (5) directly, which completes the proof. œ ð12Þ
754 J. Zhang et al.

with  we have
When k 5 d,
2 3
k1 uðk
^  1Þ yðkÞ ¼ CxðkÞ,
6 k2 uðk
^  2Þ 7 yðk  1Þ ¼ CA1 ðxðkÞ  Bk1 uðk
^  1Þ  Buðk
~  1ÞÞ,
6 7
^u ðk  1Þ ¼ 6
6 ..
7,
7 1 
yðk  2Þ ¼ CA ðxðk  1Þ  Bk2 uðk^  2Þ  Buðk
~  2ÞÞ,
4 . 5
¼ CA2 xðkÞ  CA2 Bk1 uðk
^  1Þ
krþ1 uðk
^  r þ 1Þ
2 3  CA2 Buðk
~  1ÞÞ
~  1Þ
uðk
6 uðk 7 1 
6 ~  2Þ 7 ^  2Þ  CA1 Buðk
 CA Bk2 uðk ~  2Þ,
6
u~  ðk  1Þ ¼ 6 .. 7, ..
7
4 . 5 .
~  r þ 1Þ
uðk X
r1
yðk  r þ 1Þ ¼ CArþ1 xðkÞ CAj Bkrþj uðk
^  rþ jÞ
where j¼1

8  X
r1
< k,1 k,2    k,k , k 5 d  CAj Buðk
~  r þ j Þ:
k ¼ h i j¼1
: k,1 k,2      ,
k,d k  d
Thus, we have
and k,i is defined as 
yðkÞ ¼ QxðkÞ  Hðu^  ðk  1Þ þ u~  ðk  1ÞÞ, 
k 5 d,

1, i ¼ d ðkÞ  
where Q, H and yðkÞ are given in (6). Similarly, when
k,i ¼ , i 2 f1, . . . , dg:  we can obtain
0, i ¼
6 d ðkÞ k  d,
Proof: As there exists a known positive integer d such 
yðkÞ ¼ QxðkÞ  Hu^  ðk  1Þ, 
k  d:
that 1  d ðkÞ  d,  for each time instant k, the input
Thus, we have
delay d(k) can only take one value from the set
 Therefore, system (2) can be written as 
f1, . . . , dg.
 QxðkÞ  Hðu^  ðk  1Þ þ u~  ðk  1ÞÞ , k 5 d
yðkÞ ¼ 
QxðkÞ  Hu^  ðk  1Þ, k  d,
d
X ð14Þ
xðk þ 1Þ ¼ AxðkÞ þ k,i Buðk  iÞ: ð13Þ
i¼1
which yields (12). Then, considering (8)–(10), we can
get (11) immediately, thus the proof is completed. œ
Motivated by Zhang et al. (2010), we define the
Next, the following design procedure is established.
following notations:
( Design Procedure (Time-Varying Delay Case):
½uðk  1Þ uðk  2Þ    uð0ÞT , 
k 5 d,
^
uðkÞ ¼   (1) For given system matrices A, B and C, choose
uðk  1Þ uðk  2Þ    uðk  dÞ T, k  d the minimum integer r such that Q is invertible;
8 

(2) Store yðkÞ, ũ(k  1) and û(k  1) in buffer, and
< P  uðk  iÞ,
> d
k,i k 5 d use (12) to reconstruct the state x(k);
~
uðkÞ ¼ i¼kþ1 ,
>
: (3) Choose appropriate parameters ", q, T, and
0 k  d calculate the controller u(k) by (11), then
send it and its time stamp to ZOH;
Taking into account the above notations and u(k) ¼ 0, (4) In the ZOH, the newest control input is applied
k < 0, system (13) can be rewritten as to the plant.
(
AxðkÞ þ Bk uðkÞ
^ þ BuðkÞ,
~ k 5 d
xðk þ 1Þ ¼ ,
AxðkÞ þ Bk uðkÞ,
^ k  d
4. Illustrative example
which together with A invertible implies that
In this subsection, we use a numerical example to
(  
A xðk þ 1Þ  Bk uðkÞ
1
^  BuðkÞ
~ , k 5 d illustrate the usefulness and effectiveness of the
xðkÞ ¼   : proposed approach. Consider an inverted pendulum
A1 xðk þ 1Þ  Bk uðkÞ
^ , k  d system (Gao and Chen 2007). The inverted pendulum
 International Journal of Systems Science 755

The poles of the system are 1.1329 and 0.8827, thus this
discretised system is unstable. Furthermore, we assume
that the measurement equation is

yðkÞ ¼ CxðkÞ

where C ¼ [1, 0].

Now, we consider the stabilisation of the inverted
pendulum system over network, where the networked-
induced delay is assumed to be constant with d ¼ 3.
The given initial condition is assumed to be [1, 0]. The
networked sliding mode controller in (5) is
 
uc ðkÞ ¼ 907:9709  789:6872
 

0 0
 þ 104 
 yðkÞ   4Þ
uðk
Figure 1. Inverted pendulum system. 0:5875 0
þ 19:5167sgnðsðkÞÞ:
By applying this controller, the state responses of the
on a cart is depicted in Figure 1. In this system, a closed-loop system are shown in Figure 2(a), the
pendulum is attached to the side of a cart by means of control input is shown in Figure 2(c), and sliding
a pivot which allows the pendulum to swing in the surface is shown in Figure 2(e), where q ¼ 1.2, and
xy-plane. A force u is applied to the cart in the x " ¼ 1.5. The simulation results confirm that the desired
direction, with the purpose of keeping the pendulum requirements are well achieved. Furthermore, for the
balanced upright; x is the displacement of the centre of same sampling period T, we also give the simulation
mass of the cart from the origin O;  is the angle of the results for q ¼ 3.2, and " ¼ 3.5, which are shown in
pendulum from the top vertical; M and m are the Figure 2(b), (d) and (f). It is clear that the choice of
masses of the cart and the pendulum, respectively; l is parameters q and " will effect the control performance
the half length of the pendulum (i.e. the distance from (see Remark 5).
the pivot to the centre of mass of the pendulum). It is Next, the networked-induced delay is assumed to
assumed that the pendulum is modelled as a thin rod, be time-varying. Simulation results are shown in
and the surface is assumed to be friction free. Then, by Figure 3(a)–(d), where the following networked sliding
applying Newton’s second law, we arrive at the mode controller (11) with q ¼ 0.7 and " ¼ 1.0 has been
equations of motion for the system used:
ðM þ mÞx€ þ ml€ cos   ml_2 sin  ¼ u  
ut ðkÞ ¼ 100:9740 9:8290 xðkÞ þ 5:5762sgnðsðkÞÞ,
4
mlx€ cos  þ ml2 €  mgl sin  ¼ 0,
3 where
where g is the acceleration due to gravity. Now, by 8 " #
_ T , and by >
> 1:0000 0:0000
selecting state variables z ¼ ½z1 z2 T ¼ ½  >
>
>
>
linearising the above model at the equilibrium point >
> 33:4817 33:2227
>
>
z ¼ 0, we obtain the following state-space model: >
> " #
>
> 0 0
" # " # >
> k 54
0 1 0 >
>  þ 104 
yðkÞ
>
> 0:5875 0
_ ¼
zðtÞ 3ðM þ mÞ g 3 >
>
0 zðtÞ þ  uðtÞ: >
>
<

l ð4M þ mÞ l ð4M þ mÞ
xðkÞ ¼ ðu^  ðk  1Þ þ u~  ðk  1ÞÞ
>
>
Here the parameters are selected as M ¼ 8.0 kg, m ¼ 2.0 >
>
>
> " #
kg, l ¼ 0.5 m, g ¼ 9.8 m/s2. By assuming that the >
> 1:0000 0:0000
>
>
sampling period to be T ¼ 30 ms, the discretised >
>
>
> 33:4817 33:2227
model for the above pendulum system is given by >
>
>
> " # !
>
> 0 0
    >
>
1:0078 0:0301 0:0001 > 4
 þ 10  u^  ðk  1Þ k  4
xðk þ 1Þ ¼ xðkÞ þ uðkÞ: : yðkÞ
>
0:5202 1:0078 0:0053 0:5875 0
756 J. Zhang et al.

(a) 3 (b) 3
x1(k) x1(k)
2.5 x2(k) 2.5 x2(k)

2 2

1.5 1.5

1 1

0.5 0.5

0 0

−0.5 −0.5

−1 −1

−1.5 −1.5

−2 −2
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (k) Time (k)

(c) 180 (d) 250

160
200
140

120
150
100

80 100

60
50
40

20
0
0

−20 −50
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (k) Time (k)

(e) 4 (f) 4

3.5 3.5

3 3

2.5 2.5

2 2

1.5 1.5

1 1

0.5 0.5

0 0

−0.5 −0.5

−1 −1
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (k) Time (k)

Figure 2. Simulation results (constant delay case). (a) state response with q ¼ 1.2, " ¼ 1.5; (b) state response with q ¼ 3.2, " ¼ 3.5;
(c) control input with q ¼ 1.2, " ¼ 1.5; (d) control input with q ¼ 3.2, " ¼ 3.5; (e) value of sliding function with q ¼ 1.2, " ¼ 1.5;
(f) value of sliding function q ¼ 3.2, " ¼ 3.5.

the time-varying delay d(k) satisfies that 1  d(k)  4. distributed over {1, 2, 3, 4}, then compared to
The simulation results suggests that the proposed d(k) þ 1. If d(k þ 1)  d(k) þ 1, we set
control is effective. In this simulation, d(0) is taken as d(k þ 1) ¼ d(k) þ 1 to force the ZOH to use the latest
zero and d(k þ 1) is first generated uniformly control information.
 International Journal of Systems Science 757

(a) 2 (b) 180

x1(k)
x2(k) 160
1.5
140

120
1
100

0.5 80

60
0
40

20
−0.5
0

−1 −20
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (k) Time (k)

(c) 3 (d) 4

2.5
3.5

2
3

1.5
2.5
1

2
0.5

1.5
0

−0.5 1
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (k) Time (k)

Figure 3. Simulation results (time-varying delay case). (a) state response; (b) control input; (c) value of sliding function;
(d) network delays.

5. Conclusions This work was partially supported by the Fundamental

Research Funds for the Central Universities ZY1109, GRF
The problem of sliding mode output feedback control Grant HKU 7031/07P, National Nature Science Foundation
for NCSs has been investigated in this article. By using of China under Grant 61074081.
current and previous measurements and previous
inputs, the state variables are reconstructed, based on
which the sliding mode controller was designed. Then,
we applied this approach to NCSs with constant or
time-varying delay under a networked environment. Notes on contributors
The effectiveness of the proposed design procedure has Jinhui Zhang was born in Hebei
Province, China, in 1982. He received
been illustrated through the application to an inverted his BS degree in Mathematics and
pendulum system. Indeed, there are many interesting Applied Mathematics and MS degree
and important issues to be further considered in the in Applied Mathematics from Hebei
design of similar sliding model controllers such as the University of Science and Technology,
presence of uncertainties or nonlinearities. Shijiazhuang, China, in 2004 and
2007, respectively, and PhD degree in
Control Science and
Engineering from Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing,
Acknowledgements China, in 2011. He was a Research Associate in the
The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their very Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of
helpful comments and suggestions which have improved the Hong Kong, Hong Kong, from February 2010 to May
presentation of this article. 2010, and a Senior Research Associate in the Department of
758 J. Zhang et al.
Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management,
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, from December
2010 to March 2011. He joined Beijing University of
Chemical Technology in March 2011, where he is currently
an Associate Professor. His research interests include NCSs,
robust control/filter theory, singular system, fuzzy control,
and stochastic systems.
Professor J. Lam received his BSc
degree in Mechanical Engineering
from the University of Manchester,
and was awarded the Ashbury
Scholarship, the A.H. Gibson Prize,
and the H. Wright Baker Prize for his
academic performance. He obtained
his MPhil and PhD degrees from the
University of Cambridge. His
Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Research projects were sup-
ported by the Croucher Foundation Scholarship and
Fellowship. He was a recipient of the Outstanding
Researcher Award of the University of Hong Kong and a
Distinguished Visiting Fellow of the Royal Academy of
Engineering. Prior to joining the University of Hong Kong in
1993, Professor Lam held lectureships at the City University
of Hong Kong and the University of Melbourne. He has held
Guest Professorships in many universities in China. On the
professional service side, Professor Lam is a Chartered
Mathematician, Chartered Scientist, Fellow of Institute of
Mathematics and its Applications, and Fellow of Institution
of Engineering and Technology. Apart from serving as
Subject Editor of Journal of Sound and Vibration, he is also
Associate Editor of Asian Journal of Control, International
Journal of Systems Science, International Journal of Applied
Mathematics and Computer Science, IEEE Transactions on
Signal Processing, Journal of the Franklin Institute,
Automatica, Multidimensional Systems and Signal
Processing, and is editorial member of IET Control Theory
and Applications, Dynamics of Continuous, Discrete and
Impulsive Systems: Series B (Applications & Algorithms),
and Proc. IMechE Part I: Journal of Systems and Control
Engineering. He was an Editor-in-Chief of the IEE
Proceedings: Control Theory and Applications and a
member of the IFAC Technical Committee on Control
Design. Professor Lam is a Panel Member (Engineering) of
the Research Grants Council, HKSAR. His research interests
include model reduction, robust control and filtering, delay,
singular systems, Markovian jump systems, multidimen-
sional systems, NCSs, vibration control, and biological
networks. He is a Co-recipient of the International Journal
of Systems Science Prize Paper Award.
Yuanqing Xia was born in Anhui
Province, China, in 1971 and gradu-
ated from the Department of
Mathematics, Chuzhou University,
Chuzhou, China, in 1991. He received
his MS degree in Fundamental
Mathematics from Anhui University,
China, in 1998 and his PhD degree in
Control Theory and Control
Engineering from Beijing University of Aeronautics and
Astronautics, Beijing, China, in 2001. From 1991–1995, he
was with Tongcheng Middle-School, Anhui, China, where he
worked as a Teacher. During January 2002–November 2003,
he was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Institute of
Systems Science, Academy of Mathematics and System
Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China,
where he worked on navigation, guidance and control.
From November 2003 to February 2004, he was with the
National University of Singapore as a Research Fellow,
where he worked on variable structure control. From
February 2004 to February 2006, he was with the
University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, UK, as a Research
Fellow, where he worked on NCSs. From February 2007 to
June 2008, he was a Guest Professor with Innsbruck Medical
University, Innsbruck, Austria, where he worked on biome-
dical signal processing. Since July 2004, he has been with the
Department of Automatic Control, Beijing Institute of
Technology, Beijing, first as an Associate Professor and,
and then, since 2008, as a Professor. His current research
interests are in the fields of NCSs, robust control, active
disturbance rejection control and navigation, guidance and
control.
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