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Non-Singular Adaptive Terminal Sliding Mode Control of Rigid Manipulators

Article  in  Automatica · December 2002

DOI: 10.1016/S0005-1098(02)00147-4 · Source: DBLP

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 Automatica 38 (2002) 2159 – 2167
www.elsevier.com/locate/automatica

Brief Paper
Non-singular terminal sliding mode control of rigid manipulators

Yong Fenga , Xinghuo Yub;∗ , Zhihong Manc
a Department of Electrical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150006, People’s Republic of China
b School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, GPO Box 2476V Melbourne,
Vic. 3001, Australia
c School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Received 26 June 2001; received in revised form 16 June 2002; accepted 9 July 2002

Abstract

This paper presents a global non-singular terminal sliding mode controller for rigid manipulators. A new terminal sliding mode manifold
is 3rst proposed for the second-order system to enable the elimination of the singularity problem associated with conventional terminal
sliding mode control. The time taken to reach the equilibrium point from any initial state is guaranteed to be 3nite time. The proposed
terminal sliding mode controller is then applied to the control of n-link rigid manipulators. Simulation results are presented to validate
the analysis.
? 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Terminal sliding mode control; Singularity; Robotic manipulator; Robust control; Lyapunov stability

1. Introduction
Variable structure systems (VSS) are well known
for their robustness to system parameter variations and
external disturbances (Slotine & Li, 1991; Utkin, 1992;
Yurl & James, 1988). VSS have been widely used in many
applications, such as robots, aircrafts, DC and AC motors,
power systems, process control and so on. An aspect
of VSS that is of particular interest is the sliding mode
control, which is designed to drive and constrain the
system states to lie within a neighborhood of the pre-
scribed switching manifolds that exhibit desired dynam-
ics. When in the sliding mode, the closed-loop response
becomes totally insensitive to both internal parameter un-
certainties and external disturbances. A characteristic of
conventional VSS is that the convergence of the system
states to the equilibrium point is usually asymptotical due
to the asymptotical convergence of the linear switching
manifolds that are commonly chosen.
Recently, a terminal sliding mode (TSM) controller was
developed (Man & Yu, 1997; Yu & Man, 1996; Wu, Yu, &

This paper was not presented at any IFAC meeting. This paper was
recommended for publication in revised form by Associate Editor Jurek
Z. Sasiadek under the direction of Editor Mituhiko Araki.
∗ Corresponding author.
Man, 1998). TSM has been used in the control of rigid ma-
nipulators (Man et al., 1994; Tang, 1998). The TSM con-
cept is related to the 3nite time control (Haimo, 1986;
Bhat & Bernstein, 1997). Compared with linear hyperplane-
based sliding modes, TSM oDers some superior properties
such as fast, 3nite time convergence. This controller is par-
ticularly useful for high precision control as it speeds up the
rate of convergence near an equilibrium point. However, the
existing TSM controller design methods still have a singu-
larity problem. An initial discussion to avoid the singularity
in TSM control systems was presented (Wu et al., 1998).
In this paper, a global non-singular terminal sliding mode
(NTSM) controller is presented for a class of nonlinear dy-
namical systems with parameter uncertainties and external
disturbances. A new NTSM manifold is proposed to over-
come the singularity problem. The time taken to reach the
manifold from any initial state and the time taken to reach
the equilibrium point in the sliding mode can be guaran-
teed to be 3nite time. The proposed NTSM controller is
then applied to the control of n-degree-of-freedom rigid ma-
nipulators. Simulation results are presented to validate the
analysis.
2. Conventional terminal sliding mode control

E-mail addresses: yfeng@hope.hit.edu.cn (Y. Feng), The basic principle of TSM control can be brieEy sum-
x.yu@rmit.edu.au (X. Yu). marized as follows: consider a second-order uncertain

0005-1098/02/$ - see front matter ? 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 0 5 - 1 0 9 8 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 1 4 7 - 4
2160 Y. Feng et al. / Automatica 38 (2002) 2159 – 2167

nonlinear dynamical system
ẋ1 = x2 ;
(1)
ẋ2 = f(x) + g(x) + b(x)u;
where x = [x1 ; x2 ]T is the system state vector, f(x) and
b(x)
= 0 are smooth nonlinear functions of x, and g(x)
represents the uncertainties and disturbances satisfying
g(x) 6 lg where lg ¿ 0, and u is the scalar control in-
put. The conventional TSM is described by the following
3rst-order terminal sliding variable
The TSM controller (5) cannot guarantee a bounded control
signal for the case of x2
= 0 when x1 = 0 before the system
states reach the TSM s=0. Furthermore, the singularity may
also occur even after the sliding mode s =0 is reached since,
due to computation errors and uncertain factors, the system
states cannot be guaranteed to always remain in the sliding
mode especially near the equilibrium point (x1 = 0; x2 = 0),
and the case of x2
= 0 while x1 = 0 may occur from time
to time. This underlines the importance of addressing the
singularity problem in conventional TSM systems.

s = x2 + x1q=p ; (2)
3. Non-singular terminal sliding mode control
where  ¿ 0 is a design constant, and p and q are positive
odd integers, which satisfy the following condition:
In order to overcome the singularity problem in the con-
p ¿ q: (3) ventional TSM systems, several methods have been pro-
posed. For example, one approach is to switch the sliding
The suNcient condition for the existence of TSM is mode between TSM and linear hyperplane based sliding
1 d 2 mode (Man & Yu, 1997). Another approach is to transfer
s ¡ − |s|; (4) the trajectory to a pre-speci3ed open region where TSM
2 dt
control is not singular (Wu et al., 1998). These methods are
where  ¿ 0 is a constant. For system (1), a commonly used adopting indirect approaches to avoid the singularity. In this
control design is paper, a simple NTSM is proposed, which is able to avoid


−1 q q=p−1 this problem completely. The proposed NTSM model is de-
u = −b (x) f(x) +  x1 x2 + (lg + ) sgn(s) ; scribed as follows:
p
(5) 1 p=q
s = x1 + x ; (9)
 2
which ensures that TSM occurs.
It is clear that if s(0)
= 0, the system states will reach the where ; p and q have been de3ned in (2). One can easily
sliding mode s = 0 within the 3nite time tr , which satis3es see that when s = 0, the NTSM (9) is equivalent to (2) so
|s(0)| that the time taken to reach the equilibrium point x1 =0 when
tr 6 : (6) in the sliding mode is the same as in (8). Note that in using

(9) the derivative of s along the system dynamics does not
When the sliding mode s = 0 is reached, the system dy- result in terms with negative (fractional) powers. This can
namics is determined by the following nonlinear diDerential be seen in the following theorem about the NTSM control.
equation:
Theorem 1. For system (1) with the NTSM (9), if the
x2 + x1q=p = ẋ1 + x1q=p = 0; (7)
control is designed as
where x1 = 0 is the terminal attractor of the system (7).

q
The 3nite time ts that is taken to travel from x1 (tr )
= 0 to u = −b−1 (x) f(x) +  x22−p=q + (lg + ) sgn(s) ;
x1 (ts + tr ) = 0 is given by p
 0 (10)
d x1 p
ts = −−1 q=p
= |x1 (tr )|1−q=p : (8)
x1 (tr ) x1 (p − q)
where 1 ¡ p=q ¡ 2;  ¿ 0, then the NTSM manifold (9)
This means that, in the TSM manifold (7), both the system will be reached in >nite time. Furthermore, the states x1
states x1 and x2 converge to zero in 3nite time. and x2 will converge to zero in >nite time.
It can be seen in the TSM control (5) that the second
term containing x1q=p−1 x2 may cause a singularity to occur Proof. For the NTSM (9), its derivative along the system
if x2
= 0 when x1 = 0. This situation does not occur in dynamics (1) is
the ideal sliding mode because when s = 0; x2 = −x1q=p 1 p p=q−1 1 p p=q−1
hence as long as q ¡ p ¡ 2q, i.e. 1 ¡ p=q ¡ 2, the term ṡ = ẋ1 + x ẋ2 = x2 + x ẋ2
 q 2  q 2
x1q=p−1 x2 is equivalent to x1(2q−p)=p which is non-singular. The
singularity problem may occur in the reaching phase when 1 p p=q−1
= x2 + x (f(x) + g(x) + b(x)u)
there is insuNcient control to ensure that x2
= 0 while x1 =0.  q 2
 Y. Feng et al. / Automatica 38 (2002) 2159 – 2167 2161


1 p p=q−1 q
= x2 + x2 g(x)− x22−p=q −(lg + ) sgn(s) x2
 q p
1 p p=q−1
= x (g(x) − (lg + ) sgn(s))
 q 2
then
1 p p=q−1 s >0,x2=0
sṡ = x (g(x)s − (lg + ) sgn(s)s)
 q 2 s <0,x2=0 x1

1 p p=q−1
6− x |s|:
 q 2
Since p and q are positive odd integers and
1 ¡ p=q ¡ 2, there is x2p=q−1 ¿ 0 for x2
= 0. Let (x2 ) = s=0
(1=)(p=q)x2p=q−1 . Then it has
Fig. 1. The phase plot of the system.
sṡ 6 − (x2 )|s|
for x2
= 0: (11)
(x2 ) ¿ 0
relationship between the steady-state errors of the NTSM
Therefore, for the case x2
= 0, the condition for Lya-
system and the width of the layer surrounding the NTSM
punov stability is satis3ed. The system states can reach the
manifold s(t) = 0 is given by (Feng, Han, Stonier, & Man,
sliding mode s=0 within 3nite time. Using the following ar-
2000; Feng, Yu, & Man, 2001)
guments can easily prove this: substituting the control (10)
into system (1) yields |s(t)| 6 ’ ⇒ |x(t)| 6 ’
q
ẋ2 = − x22−p=q + g(x) − (lg + ) sgn(s): and
p
Then, for x2 = 0, it is obtained |x(t)| 6 (2’)q=p for t → ∞: (12)

ẋ2 = g(x) − (lg + ) sgn(s):

For both s ¿ 0 and s ¡ 0, it is obtained ẋ2 6 −  and
ẋ2 ¿ , respectively, showing that x2 =0 is not an attractor. It
also means that there exists a vicinity of x2 = 0 such that for
a small  ¿ 0 such that |x2 | ¡ , there are ẋ2 6− for s ¿ 0
and ẋ2 ¿  for s ¡ 0, respectively. Therefore, the crossing
of the trajectory from the boundary of the vicinity x2 =  to
x2 =− for s ¿ 0, and from x2 =− to x2 = for s ¡ 0 occurs
in 3nite time. For other regions where |x2 | ¿ , it can be
easily concluded from (11) that the switching line s = 0 can
be reached in 3nite time since we have ẋ2 6 −  for s ¿ 0
and ẋ2 ¿  for s ¡ 0. The phase plane plot of the system is
shown in Fig. 1. Therefore, it is concluded that the sliding
mode s=0 can be reached from anywhere in the phase plane
in 3nite time. Once the switching line is reached, one can
easily see that NTSM (9) is equivalent to the TSM (2), so
the time taken to reach the equilibrium point x1 = 0 in the
sliding mode is the same as in (8). Therefore, the NTSM
manifold (9) can be reached in 3nite time. The states in the
sliding mode will reach zero in 3nite time. This completes
the proof.
Remark 1. It should be noted that the NTSM control (10)
is always non-singular in the state space since 1 ¡ p=q ¡ 2.
Remark 2. In order to eliminate chattering, a saturation
function sat can be used to replace the sign function sgn. The
4. Non-singular terminal sliding mode control for rigid
manipulators
In this section, a non-singular terminal sliding mode con-
trol is designed for the rigid n-link robot manipulator
M (q)qQ + C (q; q̇) + g(q) = (t) + d (t); (13)
where q(t) is the n×1 vector of joint angular position, M (q)
the n × n symmetric positive de3nite inertia matrix, C (q; q̇)
the n × 1 vector containing Coriolis and centrifugal forces,
g(q) the n × 1 gravitational torque, and (t) n × 1 vector of
applied joint torques that are actually the control inputs, and
d (t) n × 1 bounded input disturbances vector. It is assumed
that rigid robotic manipulators have uncertainties, i.e.:
M (q) = M0 (q) + RM (q);
C (q; q̇) = C0 (q; q̇) + RC (q; q̇);
g(q) = g0 (q) + Rg(q);
where M0 (q); C0 (q; q̇) and g0 (q) are the estimated terms;
RM (q); RC (q; q̇) and Rg(q) are uncertain terms. Then,
the dynamic equation of the manipulator can be written in
the following form:
M0 (q)qQ + C0 (q; q̇) + g0 (q) = (t) + (t) (14)
2162 Y. Feng et al. / Automatica 38 (2002) 2159 – 2167

with q
u0 = − M0 (q)C1−1 ”˙2−p=q ; (25)
p
(t) = −RM (q)qQ − RC (q; q̇)q − Rg(q): (15)
q [sT C1 diag(”˙p=q−1 )M0−1 (q)]T
The following assumptions are made about the robot dy- u1 = −
p sT C1 diag(”˙p=q−1 )M0−1 (q)
namics:
×[s C1 diag(”˙p=q−1 )M0−1 (q)(b0 + b1 q
M (q) ¡ 0 ; (16)
+b2 q̇2 )]; (26)
2
C (q; q̇) ¡ 0 + 1 q + 2 q̇ ; (17) where b0 ; b1 ; b2 are supposed to be known parameters as
in (20).
g(q) ¡ 0 + 1 q; (18)
Proof. Consider the following Lyapunov function
2
(t) ¡ 0 + 1 q + 2 q̇ ; (19) V = 12 sT s:
DiDerentiating V with respect to time, and substituting
(t) ¡ b0 + b1 q + b2 q̇2 ; (20)
(23)–(26) into it yields
where 0 ; 0 ; 1 ; 2 ; 0 ; 1 ; 0 ; 1 ; 2 ; b0 ; b1 ; b2 are positive

p
numbers. V̇ = sT ṡ = sT ”˙ + C1 diag(”˙p=q−1 )”Q
q
Suppose that qr is the desired input of the robot mani-

pulator and q̇r is the derivative of qr . De3ne ”(t) = q − qr ; p
= sT ”+ ˙ C1 diag(”˙p=q−1)M0−1 (q)(u1 (t)+u0 (t))+(t))
˙ = q̇ − q̇r ; e(t) = [”T (t)”˙T (t)]T . Then, the error equation
”(t) q
of the rigid robotic manipulator can be obtained as follows:

T p p=q−1 −1
ė(t) = Ae + B ; (21) =s C1 diag(”˙ )M0 (q)(u1 (t) + (t))
q
where p
    =− s C1 diag(”˙p=q−1 )M0−1 (q)
q
0 I 0
A= ; B= ; ×(b0 + b1 q + b2 q̇2 )
0 0 I
p T
= M0−1 (q)(−C0 (q; q̇) − g0 (q) − M0 (q)qQr + (t) + (t)): + s C1 diag(”˙p=q−1 )M0−1 (q)(t)
q
It can be observed that the error dynamics (21) is of form p
6− s C1 diag(”˙p=q−1 )M0−1 (q)
(13). The NTSM control strategy developed in Section 3 q
can be applied. The result is summarized in the following
theorem. Before proceeding further, the notation of the frac- ×(b0 + b1 q + b2 q̇2 )
tional power of vectors is introduced. For a variable vector p
z ∈ Rn , the fractional power of vectors is de3ned as + s C1 diag(”˙p=q−1 )M0−1 (q) (t)
q
z q=p = (z1q=p ; z2q=p ; : : : ; znq=p )T ; p
=− C1 diag(”˙p=q−1 )M0−1 (q)
q
ż q=p = (z˙q=p q=p q=p T
1 ; z˙2 ; : : : ; z˙n ) :
×(b0 + b1 q + b2 q̇2 − (t))s

Theorem 2. For the rigid n-link manipulator (14), if the that is

NTSM manifold is chosen as
V̇ 6 − (t)s ¡ 0 for s
= 0; (27)
p=q
s = ” + C1 ”˙ ; (22) where
where C1 = diag[c11 ; : : : ; c1n ] is a design matrix, and the p
(t) = C1 diag(”˙p=q−1 )M0−1 (q)
NTSM control is designed as follows, then the system q
tracking error ”(t) will converge to zero in >nite time.
×{(b0 + b1 q + b2 q2 ) − (t)} ¿ 0:
 =  0 + u0 + u1 ; (23)
Therefore, according to the Lyapunov stability criterion,
where the NTSM manifold s(t) in (22) converges to zero in 3-
nite time. On the other hand, if s = ” + C1 ”˙p=q = 0 are
0 = C0 (q; q̇) + g0 (q) + M0 (q)qQr ; (24) reached as shown in Theorem 1, then the output tracking
 Y. Feng et al. / Automatica 38 (2002) 2159 – 2167 2163

error of the robot manipulator ”(t) = q − qr will converge 1.0

to zero in 3nite time. This completes the proof.
0.8
Remark 3. The NTSM control proposed in Theorem 2
solves the control of the rigid n-link manipulator, that repre- 0.6
sents a special class of problems. The method proposed can
0.4
be extended to a class of n-order (n ¿ 2) nonlinear dynam-

x2
ical systems, that represents a broader class of problems: 0.2
ẋ1 = f1 (x1 ; x2 );
(28) 0
ẋ2 = f2 (x1 ; x2 ) + g(x1 ; x2 ) + B(x1 ; x2 )u;
-0.2
where x1 =(x11 ; x12 ; : : : ; x1n )T ∈ Rn ; x2 =(x21 ; x22 ; : : : ; x2n )T ∈
Rn ; f1 and f2 are smooth vector functions and g rep- -0.4
-0.05 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3
resents the uncertainties and disturbances satisfying
x1
g(x1 ; x2 ) 6 lg where lg ¿ 0; B is a non-singular ma-
trix and u = (u1 ; u2 ; : : : ; un )T ∈ Rn is the control vector. Fig. 2. Phase plot of NTSM system.
It is further assumed that (x1 ; x2 ) = (0; 0) if and only if
(x1 ; ẋ1 ) = (0; 0). Note that many practical dynamical sys-
tems satisfy this condition, for example, the mechanical 5.1. Comparison study
systems. Robotic systems are certainly a special case of
(28). Actually, the robotic system (14) is not in the form of In order to analyze the eDectiveness of the NTSM control
(28), but it can be transformed to such form by the coordi- proposed and to compare NTSM with TSM, consider the
nates change. So, the proposed algorithm in the paper can be simple second-order dynamical system below:
applied to any plant, which can be transformed to (28). The
ẋ1 = x2 ;
NTSM for system (28) can be designed as follows. Choose (31)
ẋ2 = 0:1 sin 20t + u:
s = x1 + ẋp=q
1 ; (29)
The NTSM and TSM are chosen as follows:
where  = diag(1 ; : : : ; n ); (i ¿ 0) for i = 1; : : : ; n, and
sNTSM = x1 + x25=3 ; sTSM = x2 + x13=5 :
ẋp=q
1 is represented as
Three control approaches are adopted: NTSM control,
ẋp=q p1 =q1 pn =qn T
1 = (x11 ; : : : ; x1n ) : TSM control, and indirect NTSM control. The NTSM con-
trol is designed according to (10) and NTSM (9), and TSM
If the NTSM control is designed as in (30), then the
control is designed according to (5) and TSM (2). The in-
high-order nonlinear dynamical systems (28) will converge
direct NTSM control is designed in the same way as TSM,
to the NTSM and the equilibrium point in 3nite time, re-
with only one diDerence, that is when |x1 | ¡ , let p = q,
spectively,
and  is selected as 0.001 (Man & Yu, 1997). Three sys-

−1

   tems achieve the same terminal sliding mode behavior. So,
@f1  @f1  s
u=− B(x1 ; x2 ) lg   +  only the phase plane response of the NTSM control system
@x2 @x2  s
is provided, as shown in Fig. 2. The control signals for the
@f1 @f1 three kinds of systems are shown in Figs. 3–5. It can be ob-
+ f1 (x1 ; x2 ) + f2 (x1 ; x2 )
@x1 @x2 viously seen some valuable facts. No singularity occurs at
 all in the case of NTSM control. When the trajectory crosses
2−p1 =qq 2−pn =qn the x1 = 0 axis, singularity occurs in the case of TSM con-
+!−1 −1 diag(x11 ; : : : ; x1n ) ; (30)
trol. For the indirect NTSM control, although singularity is
avoided by switching from the TSM to linear sliding mode,
where ! =diag(p1 =q1 ; : : : ; pn =qn ); pi and qi are positive odd
the eDect of the singularity can be seen, especially when
integers and qi ¡ pi ¡ 2qi for i = 1; : : : ; n.
 decreases to zero. However when  is relatively large,
the sliding mode of the system is switching between TSM
and the linear plane based sliding mode, and the advantage
5. Simulation studies of TSM system is lost. Therefore, from the results of the
above simulations, the occurrence of singularity problem in
The section presents two studies: one is the comparison the TSM system, the drawback of the indirect NTSM, and
study of performance between NTSM and TSM, and the the eDectiveness of the NTSM in avoiding singularity, are
other an application to a robot control problem. observed, respectively.
2164 Y. Feng et al. / Automatica 38 (2002) 2159 – 2167

2 2

1 1

0 0

-1 -1
-2 -2

-3 -3
u

u
-4 -4
-5 -5
-6 -6
-7 -7
-8 -8
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
time (sec.) time(sec.)

Fig. 3. Control signal of NTSM system. Fig. 5. Control signal of indirect TSM system.

10 y
0

-10 m2
-20 r2
-30 q2

-40
u

-50 r1 m1

-60
q1 x
-70 0
-80
Fig. 6. Two-link robot manipulator model.
-90
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
time(sec.) where
Fig. 4. Control signal of TSM system. a11 (q2 ) = (m1 + m2 )r12 + m2 r22 + 2m2 r1 r2 cos(q2 ) + J1 ;

a12 (q2 ) = m2 r22 + m2 r1 r2 cos(q2 );

5.2. Control of a robot a22 = m2 r22 + J2 ;

A simulation with a two-link rigid robot manipulator (see 12 (q2 ) = m2 r1 r2 sin(q2 );

Fig. 6) is performed for the purpose of evaluating the perfor-
1 (q1 ; q2 ) = ((m1 + m2 )r1 cos(q2 ) + m2 r2 cos(q1 + q2 ));
mance of the proposed NTSM control scheme. The dynamic
equation of the manipulator model in Fig. 6 is given by 2 (q1 ; q2 ) = m2 r2 cos(q1 + q2 ):
  
a11 (q2 ) a12 (q2 ) qQ1 The parameter values are r1 = 1 m; r2 = 0:8 m;
J1 = 5 kg m; J2 = 5 kg m; m1 = 0:5 kg; m2 = 1:5 kg. The
a12 (q2 ) a22 qQ2
desired reference signals are given by
 
−12 (q2 )q̇21 − 212 (q2 )q̇1 q̇2 qr1 = 1:25 − (7=5)e−t + (7=20)e−4t ;
+
12 (q2 )q̇22 qr2 = 1:25 + e−t − (1=4)e−4t :
   
1 (q1 ; q2 )g #1 The initial values of the system are selected as
+ = ; (32)
2 (q1 ; q2 )g #2 q1 (0) = 1:0; q2 (0) = 1:5; q̇1 (0) = 0:0; q̇2 (0) = 0:0:
 Y. Feng et al. / Automatica 38 (2002) 2159 – 2167 2165

1.6 30

25
1.4
Output tracking of joint 1( rad)

20

Control input of joint 1( Nm)

1.2
q1 15
1.0
10
qr1
0.8 5

0
0.6
-5
0.4
-10
0.2
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -15
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
time(sec) time(sec)

Fig. 7. Output tracking of joint 1 using a boundary layer. Fig. 9. Control of joint 1 using a boundary layer.

2.0
4
1.9 2
Output tracking of joint 2( rad)

Control input of joint 2 (Nm)

1.8 0

1.7 -2

-4
1.6
qr2 -6
1.5
q2 -8
1.4
-10
1.3 -12

1.2 -14
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
time(sec) time(sec)

Fig. 8. Output tracking of joint 2 using a boundary layer. Fig. 10. Control of joint 2 using a boundary layer.

The nominal values of m1 and m2 are assumed to be the tracking error of the system |q̃i | can be guaranteed. On
the other hand, according to (12), it is obtained that
m̂1 = 0:4 kg; m̂2 = 1:2 kg:
The boundary parameters of system uncertainties in (20) |q̃˙i | 6 (2’i )q=p ; i = 1; 2:
are assumed to be Let
b0 = 9:5; b1 = 2:2; b2 = 2:8:
(2’i )q=p 6 0:024; i = 1; 2;
Suppose the tracking error and the 1st tracking error are to
be |q̃i | 6 0:001 and |q̃˙i | 6 0:024; i = 1, 2, where q̃i = qi − qri then
and q̃˙i = q̇i − q̇ri ; i=1, 2. Using the above performance index, q log 0:024
it can be determined the parameters of NTSM manifolds. 6 ; i = 1; 2: (34)
p log(2’i )
According to (12), it is obtained that
For simplicity, let i = 1; i = 1; 2. Then from (34), it is
|q̃i | 6 ’i ; i = 1; 2:
obtained that
Let q log 0:024
6 = 0:60015; i = 1; 2: (35)
’i = 0:001; i = 1; 2 (33) p log(2 × 1 × 0:001)
2166 Y. Feng et al. / Automatica 38 (2002) 2159 – 2167

0.1 output tracking errors of the system reach the terminal slid-
0 ing mode manifold s = 0 in 3nite time, then they converge
to zero along s = 0 in 3nite time. It can be clearly seen that
-0.1
neither singularity nor chattering occurs in the two control
-0.2 signals.
de1/dt(rad/s)

-0.3
-0.4 6. Conclusions
-0.5
-0.6
In this paper, a global non-singular TSM controller for
a second-order nonlinear dynamic systems with parameter
-0.7
uncertainties and external disturbances has been proposed.
-0.8 The time taken to reach the manifold from any initial sys-
-0.9 tem states and the time taken to reach the equilibrium point
-0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 in the sliding mode have been proved to be 3nite. The new
e1(t)(rad) terminal sliding mode manifold proposed can enable the
Fig. 11. Phase plot of tracking error of joint 1.
elimination of the singularity problem associated with con-
ventional terminal sliding mode control. The global NSTM
controller proposed has been used for the control design
of an n-degree-of-freedom rigid manipulator. Simulation
0.6
results are presented to validate the analysis. The proposed
0.5
controller can be easily applied to practical control of
robots as given the advances of microprocessors, the vari-
0.4 ables with fractional power can be easily built into control
algorithms.
de2/dt(rad/s)

0.3
References
0.2
Bhat, S. P., & Bernstein, D. S. (1997). Finite-time stability of
0.1 homogeneous systems. Proceedings of American control conference
(pp. 2513–2514).
0 Feng, Y., Han, F., Yu, X., Stonier, D., & Man, Z. (2000). Tracking
precision analysis of terminal sliding mode control systems with
saturation functions. In X. Yu, J.-X. Xu (Eds.), Advances in
-0.1
-0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 variable structure systems: Analysis, integration and applications
(pp. 325 –334). Singapore: World Scienti3c.
e2(t)(rad) Feng, Y., Yu, X., & Man, Z. (2001). Non singular terminal sliding mode
control and its applications to robot manipulators. Proceedings of
Fig. 12. Phase plot of tracking error of joint 2.
2001 IEEE international symposium on circuits and systems, Vol. III
(pp. 545 –548). Sydney, May 2001.
Haimo, V. T. (1986). Finite time controllers. SIAM Journal of Control
Let and Optimization, 24(4), 760–770.
Man, Z., Paplinski, A. P., & Wu, H. (1994). A robust MIMO terminal
q sliding mode control scheme for rigid robotic manipulators. IEEE
= 0:6:
p Transactions on Automatic Control, 39(12), 2464–2469.
Man, Z., & Yu, X. (1997). Terminal sliding mode control of mimo linear
Now, the parameters of the TSM can be obtained as: systems. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Fundamental
q = 3; p = 5 (there are many other options as well). Finally, Theory and Applications, 44(11), 1065–1070.
Slotine, J. E., & Li, W. (1991). Applied non-linear control. Englewood
the NTSM models are obtained as follows:
CliDs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Tang, Y. (1998). Terminal sliding mode control for rigid robots.
s1 = q̃1 + q̃˙15=3 = 0; s2 = q̃2 + q̃˙25=3 = 0:
Automatica, 34(1), 51–56.
Utkin, V. I. (1992). Sliding modes in control optimization. Berlin,
In order to eliminate the chattering, the boundary layer Heidelberg: Springer.
method is adopted (Slotine & Li, 1991) in the NTSM con- Wu, Y., Yu, X., & Man, Z. (1998). Terminal sliding mode control design
trol. The simulation results are shown in Figs. 7–12. Figs. 7 for uncertain dynamic systems. Systems and Control Letters, 34,
and 8 show the output tracking of joints 1 and 2. Figs. 9 281–288.
and 10 depict the control signals of joints 1 and 2, respec- Yu, X., & Man, Z. (1996). Model reference adaptive control systems
with terminal sliding modes. International Journal of Control, 64(6),
tively. Figs. 11 and 12 show the phase plot of tracking error 1165–1176.
of joints 1 and 2, respectively. One can easily see that the Yurl, B. S., & James, M. B. (1988). Continuous sliding mode control.
system states track the desired reference signals. First, the Proceedings of American Control Conference (pp. 562–563).
 Y. Feng et al. / Automatica 38 (2002) 2159 – 2167
Yong Feng received the B.S. degree from
the Department of Control Engineering in
1982, and M.S. degree from the Depart-
ment of Electrical Engineering in 1985 and
Ph.D. degree from the Department of Con-
trol Engineering in 1991, in Harbin Insti-
tute of Technology, China, respectively. He
has been with the Department of Electri-
cal Engineering, Harbin Institute of Tech-
nology since 1985, and is currently a Pro-
fessor. He was a visiting scholar in the
Faculty of Informatics and Communication,
Australia, from May 2000 to November 2001. He has authored and
co-authored over 50 journal and conference papers. He has published 3
books. He has completed over 10 research projects, including process
control, arc welding robot, climbing wall robot, CNC system, a direct
drive motor and its control system, the electronics and simulation of CCD
digital camera, and so on. His current research interests are nonlinear
control systems, sampled data systems, robot control, digital camera
modelling and simulation.
Xinghuo Yu received B.Sc. (EEE) and
M.Sc. (EEE) from the University of Sci-
ence and Technology of China in 1982
and 1984 respectively, and Ph.D. degree
from South-East University, China in 1987.
From 1987 to 1989, he was Research
Fellow with Institute of Automation, Chi-
nese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
From 1989 to 1991, he was a Postdoctoral
Fellow with the Applied Mathematics De-
partment, University of Adelaide, Australia.
From 1991 to 2002, he was with Central
Queensland University, Rockhampton, Australia where he was Lecturer,
Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor then Professor of Intelligent Sys-
tems and the Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Informatics
and Communication. Since March 2002, he has been with the School
of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology, Australia, where he is a Professor, Director of Software and
Networks, and Deputy Head of School. He has also held Visiting Profes-
sor positions in City University of Hong Kong and Bogazici University
View publication stats
2167
(Turkey). He has recently been conferred as Honorary Professor of Cen-
tral Queensland University. He is Guest Professor of Harbin Institute of
Technology (China), Huazhong University of Science and Technology
(China), and Southeast University (China). Professor Yu’s research inter-
ests include sliding mode and nonlinear control, chaos and chaos control,
soft computing and applications. He has published over 200 refereed pa-
pers in technical journals, books and conference proceedings. He has also
coedited four research books “Complex Systems: Mechanism of Adapta-
tion” (IOS Press, 1994), “Advances in Variable Structure Systems: Anal-
ysis, Integration and Applications” (World Scienti3c, 2001), “Variable
Structure Systems: Towards the 21st Century” (Springer-Verlag, 2002),
“Transforming Regional Economies and Communities with Information
Technology” (Greenwood, 2002).
Prof. Yu serves as an Associate Editor of IEEE Trans Circuits and
Systems Part I and is on the Editorial Board of International Journal of
Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. He was General Chair of
the 6th IEEE International Workshop on Variable Structure Systems held
in December 2000 on the Gold Coast, Australia. He was the sole recipient
of the 1995 Central Queensland University Vice Chancellor’s Award for
Research.
Zhihong Man received the B.E. degree
from Shanghai Jiaotong University, China,
the M.S. degree from the Chinese Academy
of Sciences, and the Ph.D. from the Uni-
versity of Melbourne, Australia, all in
electrical and electronic engineering, in
1982, 1986 and 1993, respectively. From
1994 to 1996, he was a Lecturer in the
Department of Computer and Commu-
nication Engineering, Edith Cowan Uni-
versity, Australia. From 1996 to 2000,
he was a Lecturer and then a Senior
Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering, the University of
Tasmania, Australia. In 2001, he was a Visiting Senior Fellow in the
School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore. Since 2002, he has been an Associate Professor of Computer
Engineering at Nanyang Technological University. His research interests
are in robotics, fuzzy logic control, neural networks, sliding mode control
and adaptive signal processing. He has published more than 120 journal
and conference papers in these areas.