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A new continuous approximation of sign function for sliding mode control

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 Shokouhi, Farbood, and Davaie Markazi, Amir-Hossein. "A new continuous approximation of sign function for sliding mode
control", International Conference on Robotics and Mechantronics (ICRoM 2018). Tehran. Iran.2018.
A new continuous approximation of sign function
for sliding mode control
Farbood Shokouhi1
School of Mechanical Engineering
Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST)
Tehran, Iran
shokuhi@gmail.com
Abstract— In the sliding mode control, the control law with
the sign function creates a discontinuous control input resulting
from a limited switching around the sliding surface. In this way,
the trajectories of motion are maintained in the vicinity of a
prescribed absorbent sliding surface. On the other hand, due to
the existence of such a control law, an unwanted problem in the
control of the sliding , i.e., the "chattering phenomenon" occurs
which ought to be reduced or eliminated in some ways. Various
approaches have been suggested in the literature, mostly based
on the continuous approximation of the discontinuous sign
function. In this paper, a new continuous approximation for sign
function is proposed and compared to the previous ones. It is
shown that a parameter of the new approximation function
affects the performance including the convergence rate towards
the sliding surface. Such a design parameter can be further
employed for optimization of sliding mode control for various
applications.
Keywords— Sign function, Signum, Sliding Mode Control,
SMC, Chattering.
I. INTRODUCTION
To begin with, the Russian authors proposed the theory of
"Variable Structure Systems (VSS)" that was suggested from
Philippov mathematical work in the early 1950s, and since
then this theory have been expanded with the invention of
high-speed control devices everywhere. This is a systemic
solution for the problem of "stability" and "Consistent
performance" against "bounded external disturbances". More
of the operational programs in relation to "Variable Structure
Systems (VSS)" is known as "SMC”. This method is a "high-
speed nonlinear control and nonlinear feedback” that in
limited time, switches discontinuous discontinuously on a
prescribed absorbent sliding surface.
SMC creates a discontinuous control law and causes a
limited switching around this sliding surface. Thus, the
trajectory of motion of the state variables and system
dynamics must inevitably be oriented towards this sliding
surface. On the other hand, the existence of such a control law
creates an unwanted problem in the control of the sliding, i.e.,
the "chattering phenomenon" occurs which ought to be
reduced or eliminated in some ways. Various approaches have
been suggested in the literature, mostly based on the
continuous approximation of the discontinuous sign function.
Some of these methods are presented.
1
- Correspond author
Amir Hossein Davaie-Markazi
School of Mechanical Engineering
Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST)
Tehran, Iran
Markazi@iust.ac.ir
This paper is organized as follows: The paper has four
sections. In section I, we stated a brief introduction to the work
done by researchers on VSS. In section II, we introduce the
SMC approach. In Section III, we express the discontinuous
sign function in control law. In Section IV, we sum up the
necessary conclusion and discussion.
II. SLIDING MODE CONTROL
One of the key points in the designing controllers is that
controlling must be done in the presence of bounded external
disturbances as well as perturbation-uncertainties. For this
cause, in the recent years, there has been a lot of researches
on systems that have such conditions. In these extensive
studies, the authors of these researches have been able to
develop robust control methods for such conditions, which
SMC is the most important of these methods. Sliding mode
controllers are based upon one of the control methods for the
system of "Variable Control System (VCS)". [1].
A. Conventional SMC (CSMC)
CSMC contains a lot of notes and practical applications.
The reason for this popularity is the attractive features of the
sliding mode, which is simultaneously robust to
"perturbation-model uncertainties" and "bounded external
disturbances". It also provides a "fast-convergence
characteristic for a nonlinear system by following a reduced
order system" [2]. However, there are two problems in this
method: The first problem is “reaching phase" and the second
one is the "input chattering problem" (chattering
phenomenon). In addition to these problems, the CSMC
controller becomes much more conservative in its use than
other design methods. Because the trajectories of motion are
obtained by sliding mode dynamics, they cannot have
dynamics as the main system [3]. In other words, the
following factors cause the unwanted problem of "chattering
phenomenon":
1) Not being robust at the reaching phase.
2) Stimulate high frequency oscillations (with limited
range) of system; sensors or actuators.
3) Using the large gain in the controller.
4) Input control signal switching.
In addition to these problems, not guarantying asymptotic
stability is also troublesome, which causes the system
dynamics not to converge to point of equilibrium in a limited
time.
The design of a sliding mode controller includes:
1) Determine a "sliding surface" that represents" desired
stable dynamics", being robust at the reaching phase.
2) Describes a "control law" that guarantees" the
reaching condition" and "the sliding condition".
The "phase trajectory" of a CSMC can be represented in
two sections: the "reaching phase" (when the state trajectory
is driven towards the sliding surface) and the “sliding
phase"(when the state trajectory is moving towards the origin
along the sliding surface), which will be reviewed in the
following two modes of control (Fig. 1):
Fig. 1 The CSMC in phase plane [4]
B. Reaching phase
In Fig. 1, the "reaching phase" of the desired starting point
of the motion paths 𝑥(𝑡0 ) to the sliding surface in a limited
time (i.e., point 𝑥(𝑡1 )) was well demonstrated. The moving
paths that start with a start condition given outside the sliding
surface (𝑥(𝑡0 )) are dragged to the slider surface (𝑥(𝑡1 )). This
is known as the "reaching phase" or "hitting phase"
( ̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
𝑥(𝑡0 )𝑥(𝑡10 ) ), and the system of SMC is sensitive to
"perturbation- model uncertainties" and "bounded external
unknown disturbances" in this section of the "phase
trajectory".
A designer must be able to reduce or eliminate this
sensitivity in a variety of ways. The important point here is
that if the initial error states are far from the sliding surface,
the discontinuous control gain (𝐾(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡)) will increase
rapidly. This increase is due to the largeness of |𝑠(0)| and not
due to the perturbations and disturbances in the system. This
is why the discontinuous control gain (𝐾(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡)) is
increased to an excessive amount. This incremental
discontinuous control gain (𝐾(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡)) causes error states to
be forced on the sliding surface. That is why some researchers
are talking about the elimination of "reaching phase".
So far, various approaches have been proposed to eliminate
the reaching phase:
1) Propose an integral sliding mode
2) Using the sliding surface of the time-varying (or
sliding surface switching) [2]
3) Entering a larger control law [5]
4) Discontinuous control high-gain feedback to increase
the speed of the reaching phase [5].
C. Sliding phase
Park et al. said that system states should be kept at the
slider surface; in other words, "a sliding surface" should be
converted to "an absorbent surface" needed to design the
"correct control law”. It is also one of the problems.
Therefore, sliding mode controller is very conservative in use
with other controller design methods. Because the state
trajectory of the CSMC system is determined by sliding mode
dynamics which cannot have the same order dynamics of the
original system [3].
After designing the first stage (the design of an absorbent
sliding surface), it turns into the second stage of the design of
the controller, which includes the determination of the
"switching control law". This law allows system states to stay
on this surface after reaching this sliding so that the system is
balanced. To do this, the control law must be designed in such
a way that the vectors of their state variables and their
dynamics are tangent to the paths of movement to the surface.
Mendes has noticed that in practice, the variable structure
control (and especially SMC) introduces a problem, and that
is: there is only an "ideal sliding mode" when the state
trajectory without any chattering moves toward the sliding
surface and remains on it and proceeds to the equilibrium
point [5]. To solve this problem, Mendes suggests a
continuous control law 𝑢𝑒𝑞 (𝑡) that approaches the
discontinuous law 𝑢𝑠𝑤 (𝑡) operation close to the switching
surface region can be used, obtaining thus a reference
tracking with controlled accuracy. There is a tradeoff
relationship between "the level of chattering in the control
signal" and the "the accuracy in reference tracking": the more
exact the tracking of references, the higher the level of
chattering (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2 A schematic of the level of chattering in the control signal
around the sliding surface [6]
Using the "boundary layer around the sliding surface"
concept, it can be shown that sliding occurs along a
neighborhood of size equal to 2𝜙 (twice the thickness of the
boundary layer- 𝜙) of the sliding surface and can be defined
as such (Fig. 3):
 {𝑥| |𝑠| ≤ 𝜙, 0 < 𝜙} 

Fig. 3 The boundary layer covers the sliding surface.[5]
In Fig. 3, we show the behavior of the system states when
the boundary layer is used around the linear sliding surface
(𝑠 = 0). It has been seen that around this surface, a radius
with a fixed boundary layer thickness (𝜙 ) is created and
surrounds the surface. The trajectory of the system states after
reaching this sliding surface; within this cylinder to the radius
( 𝜙 ), continue their irregular sliding motion until they
converge to the point of equilibrium on 𝑠 = 0.
We consider a second-order nonlinear dynamic system with
Single-Input Single-Output (SISO):
 𝑥̈ (𝑡) = 𝑓(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡) + 𝑔(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡). 𝑢(𝑡) + 𝑑(𝑡)
where 𝑥(𝑡) is the state vector, 𝑑(𝑡) is a time-varying
disturbance with known upper bound, 𝑢(𝑡) is the control law.
𝑓(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡) and 𝑔(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡) are generally nonlinear functions
of time and states. The approximation of 𝑓(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡) →
𝑓̂(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡) and 𝑔(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡) → 𝑔̂(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡) to achieve 𝑠̇ (𝑡) = 0.
Therefore, the discontinuous control law as follows [7]:
 𝑢(𝑡) = 𝑢𝑒𝑞 (𝑡) + 𝑢𝑠𝑤 (𝑡)
1
 𝑢𝑒𝑞 (𝑡) = ̂ (𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡) − 𝑑(𝑡) + 𝑥̈ 𝑑 (𝑡) − 𝜆𝑒̇ )
(−𝑓
̂(𝑿(𝑡),𝑡)
𝑔
 𝑢𝑠𝑤 (𝑡) = −𝐾(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡). 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛(𝑠(𝑡))
In the equation (3) discontinuous sign function (𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛(𝑠))
has covered up and down part of the sliding surface. 𝜆 is a
strictly positive constant, taken to be the bandwidth of the
system, and 𝑒(𝑡) = 𝑥(𝑡) − 𝑥𝑑 (𝑡) is the tracking error in the
output state and 𝑒̇ (𝑡) = 𝑥̇ (𝑡) − 𝑥̇ 𝑑 (𝑡) is the tracking
derivative error in the output state and 𝑥𝑑 (𝑡) is the desired
state. Coefficient of the discontinuous sign function
(𝐾(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡)) is the discontinuous control gain. This
coefficient specifies the convergence speed. For choosing
𝐾(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡) the following is suggested:
 𝐾(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡) = 𝐹(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡) + 𝜂
The estimation error on 𝑓(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡) is assumed to be
bounded by some known function 𝐹 = 𝐹(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡), so that:
 𝑓̂(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡) − 𝑓(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡) | ≤ 𝐹(𝑿(𝑡), 𝑡) 
where 𝜂 is a strictly positive constant.
III. DISCONTINUOUS SIGN FUNCTION IN CONTROL LAW
The control law (u) with the discontinuous sign function
(𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛(𝑠)) creates a discontinuous control law that requires
infinite switching around the sliding surface. In this way, the
trajectory of the system states must incline toward the
attractive sliding surface. On the other hand, due to the
existence of such a control law, an unwanted problem in
SMC, i.e., the "chattering phenomenon" occurs which ought
to be reduced or eliminated in some ways. The systems states
being kept on the sliding surface is very crucial, but the
existence of perturbation and disturbance causes the system
states to be unable to stay put on the sliding surface, as a
result, the “chattering phenomenon” takes place. In Fig. 4, the
schematic represents the "chattering phenomenon" along
with the "reaching phase".

Fig. 4 A schematic of the around the sliding surface

A. Methods for solving the problem of chattering
 phenomena
So far, researchers have proposed varieties of methods to
solve the problem of unwanted chattering phenomena. For
 instance:
1) Using the tangent hyperbolic function (𝑡𝑎𝑛ℎ(𝑠/𝜙))
and the deployment of a boundary layer
2) Using the continuous approximations of the sign
function (𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛(𝑠)) instead of the discontinuous sign function
3) Using the saturation function (𝑠𝑎𝑡(𝑠, 𝜙)) instead of
the sign function (𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛(𝑠))and deployment of a boundary
layer
4) Using the reduction of the sign function domain
algorithm
5) Using Integral Sliding Mode Control (ISMC)
algorithm
 6) Using the High-Order Sliding Mode Control
(HOSMC) algorithm
and etc.
B. Continuous approximation functions of dis-continuous
sign function
Among the drawbacks of the unwanted chattering
phenomenon, one is that it causes "high- frequency control
switching" that may lead to the excitation of "unmodeled
high-frequency system dynamics". Thus "unpredicted
unstable behavior" occurs. It may also cause actuators to
experience unwanted stress and they may crash or their
lifetime be reduced. High-thermal losses in electronic
systems as well as the reduction of lifetime in mechanical
systems can be added to the drawbacks of the unwanted
chattering phenomenon.
One of the recommendations based on eliminating
unwanted chattering phenomena is substituting a Continuous
Approximation of Sign Function (CASF) with the
discontinuous sign function. So far, for this substitution
several functions have been proposed. For instance: Fig. 5 A comparison between CASF and discontinuous sign function

CASF No.1: 2 As it can be seen, the proposed function number (11) is an

appropriate continuous approximation for a discontinuous
2 𝜋 sign function. A designer regarding its own design problem
 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛(𝑠) ≈ 𝑔𝑑 ( 𝑠) 
𝜋 2 can choose an appropriate value for the 𝛽 parameter. In Fig.
6, we consider different values for the 𝛽 parameter, and you
CASF No.2:3 can clearly see the different behaviors of our proposed
function (11).
√𝜋
 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛(𝑠) ≈ 𝑒𝑟𝑓 ( 𝑠)  Now, by applying the proposed function for the second -
2
order differential equation (12) in the simulation of the
CASF No.3:4 control law (14), we see that the unwanted chattering
phenomena is eliminated (Fig. 7). The result is that at a given
time, the more the value of 𝛽 parameter increases, the more
2 𝜋 convergence speed to the sliding surface increases.
 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛(𝑠) ≈ 𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛 ( 𝑠) 
𝜋 2

CASF No.4:5

 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛(𝑠) ≈ (1 + 𝑒 −𝑠 )−𝛼 , 0 < 𝛼 

CASF No.5:6

𝑠
 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛(𝑠) ≈  
1+|𝑠|

Our CASF proposal as follows:

𝑠
 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛(𝑠) ≈ , 0 < 𝛽 
√𝑠 2 +𝛽

C. Comparison between Continuous Approximation of Sign Fig. 6 Behaviors of our proposed functions with different 𝛽 parameter
Functions (CASF) with discontinuous sign function
We consider a second-order nonlinear system as follows:
In Fig. 5, the CASF of the numbers (8), (10), (11) and
discontinuous sign function are represented below. 𝑥̇1 = 𝑥2
 { −𝑥22  
𝑥̇ 2 = 𝑥1 𝑒 + (1.5 sin(𝑡))𝑢

We consider sliding surface as follows:

2 - Gudermannian function 5 - Generalized logistic function

3 - Error function 6 - Softsign function
4
- Arctangent function
 𝑠 = 𝑥2 + 𝜆𝑥1 , 0 < 𝜆 = 4
We can design control law as follows:
 𝜂 = 2 , 𝜙 = 0.001 ;
|𝑥1 |+𝜆|𝑥2 |
 𝐹= ;
0.5
 𝑢 = −(𝐹 + 𝜂)𝑠𝑎𝑡(𝑠, 𝜙); (𝑆𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛)
𝑠
𝑢 = −(𝐹 + 𝜂) ( ) , 0 < 𝛽 = 20 (𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑑).
√𝑠 2 +𝛽
In Fig. 7, two control laws can be seen. The first control
law consists of the saturation function (𝑠𝑎𝑡(𝑠, 𝜙)) with the
boundary layer thickness (𝜙 = 0.001) and the second control
law consists of the proposed method (11) with 0 < 𝛽 = 20.
The value (0 < 𝛽) in the function (11) is a very important
factor for system states to converge to a sliding surface.
The 𝛽 parameter is an appropriate criterion for
optimization that its value depends on its specific design
problem. Researchers can later present various suggestions
based on this ground.
Fig. 7 Simulation of the control laws for Second-order differential
equation (10)
Fig. 8 Control law (u)-time (second) graph
In Fig. 8, the control laws are presented together.

The equations of control laws used in Fig. 8 as follows:
  𝑢1 = −(𝐹 + 𝜂)𝑠𝑎𝑡(𝑠, 𝜙) 
𝑠
  𝑢2 = −(𝐹 + 𝜂) ( ) 
1+|𝑠|
 2 𝜋
 𝑢3 = −(𝐹 + 𝜂) ( 𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛 ( 𝑠)) 
𝜋 2
 𝑢4 = −(𝐹 + 𝜂)(1 + 𝑒 −𝑠 )−𝛼 , 0 < 𝛼 = 10 
𝑠
 𝑢5 = −(𝐹 + 𝜂) , 0 < 𝛽 = 20 
√𝑠 2 +𝛽
IV. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
We have already seen that for eliminating or decreasing
the unwanted chattering phenomenon in SMC, researchers
have proposed a variety of methods and are still working in
this field. One of the methods to eliminate or reduce this
phenomenon is a continuous approximation of sign function
(CASF) that can be used to replace the discontinuous sign
function (the main cause of this phenomenon). This replacing
contains two-feature specifications: One simplicity of
computations and second a designer with a particular
parameter in sign function can control the convergence speed
of system states and their dynamics to reach the sliding
surface, so the designer in an appropriate situation can trade-
off this parameter with other parameters in the design
problem for achieving the optimal design. In this paper, we
propose a function, with such property.
In Fig. 5, we compared our proposed method with three
other proposed functions and it is clear that our proposed
function can be a good function for replacing the sign function
like other functions. In Fig. 6, we presented our proposed
method with the values of 𝛽 parameters and it is seen that a
designer can select desired 𝛽 parameter for specific design
problem. In Fig. 7, we applied the proposed method for the
second - order differential equation (12) in the simulation of
the control law (14) in order to observe the method of
eliminating unwanted chattering phenomena. In this figure,
we presented the results of proposed method with the
saturation function in the same graph, to show their
differences. In here, we have to pay attention that 𝛽
parameters exists in our proposed method and this parameter
obtain the convergence speed of system states and their
dynamics to reach the sliding surface. Hence, designers can
replace the proposed method with sign function. In addition,
this proposed method can act as an alternative function for the
continuous approximation of sign functions and prevent the
occurrence of unwanted chattering phenomena in controller
design.
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