Sliding Mode Control of the Optoelectronic

Stabilized Platform Based on the Exponential

Approach Law
Qi Qiao Kang Nie Jiuqiang Deng
Key Laboratory of Optical Key Laboratory of Optical Key Laboratory of Optical
Engineering, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Chengdu, China Sciences, Chengdu, China Sciences, Chengdu, China
Institute of Optics and Electronics, Institute of Optics and Electronics, Institute of Optics and Electronics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Chengdu, China Chengdu, China Chengdu, China
University of Chinese Academy of University of Chinese Academy of University of Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Beijing, China Sciences, Beijing, China Sciences, Beijing, China
Chengdu, China Chengdu, China Chengdu, China
qiaoqi940210@qq.com kangnie@outlook.com jqdeng2016@126.com

Wei Ren Xinglong Chen Yao Mao*

Key Laboratory of Optical
Engineering, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Chengdu, China
Institute of Optics and Electronics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Chengdu, China
University of Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Beijing, China
Chengdu, China
renwei9327@163.com
Key Laboratory of Optical Key Laboratory of Optical
Engineering, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Chengdu, China Sciences, Chengdu, China
Institute of Optics and Electronics, Institute of Optics and Electronics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Chengdu, China Chengdu, China
University of Chinese Academy of University of Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Beijing, China Sciences, Beijing, China
Chengdu, China Chengdu, China
dream_cosmos@163.com maoyao@ioe.ac.cn

Abstract—As the tracking target of the optoelectronic
tracking system changes, higher requirements are placed on the
tracking accuracy of the optoelectronic tracking system. The
optoelectronic tracking system will be subjected to various
nonlinear disturbances during the actual operation, which
affects the tracking accuracy of the system. In the process of
designing traditional PID controllers, the nonlinear factors
existing in the system are often neglected. The controller
designed by this method is difficult to improve the tracking
accuracy of the system. Therefore, in order to improve the
tracking accuracy of the optoelectronic tracking system, the
primary task is to improve the anti-disturbance capability of the
system. This paper uses a sliding mode controller, which has the
advantages of fast response, insensitivity to parameter changes
and disturbances, to suppress the interference of external
disturbances on the system. Among them, the sliding model
surface adds the integral term of the position error, and the
control law adopts the improved exponential approach law,
which effectively suppresses the chattering phenomenon of the
sliding mode controller and improves the anti-disturbing ability
of the optoelectronic tracking system. The simulation results
verify the effectiveness and superiority of the sliding mode
control strategy designed in this paper.
Keywords—the optoelectronic tracking system, sliding mode
control (SMC), disturbance suppression
I. INTRODUCTION
The optoelectronic tracking system is an optical
measurement system that can automatically track dynamic
targets or flying targets, which mainly consists of optics
(telescope or camera), servo (tracking frame, electronic
control, etc.), angle measurement (encoder, etc.), recording
(camera, etc.) and auxiliary subsystems, commonly used in
land-based, sea-based, space-based and space-based real-time
precision tracking of relative moving targets[1]. For large-
scale optoelectronic tracking systems such as astronomical
telescopes, in order to achieve real-time precise tracking and
detection of small, weak and long-distance targets, the
tracking accuracy of the optoelectronic tracking system needs
to reach angular seconds.
In the actual operation process, the optoelectronic tracking
system will be affected by friction torque, motor torque
fluctuation, wind load disturbance and other various nonlinear
disturbances, resulting in lower tracking accuracy of the
system. Due to the existence of the above-mentioned
nonlinear disturbance of the optoelectronic tracking system
and its own more complicated and uncertain model, with the
traditional PID control technology, only an approximate
model can be established. In the modeling, only reasonable
approximation processing can be done, and the uncertainties
such as parameter error, measurement noise, modelless
dynamics and uncertain external interference in the object are
ignored.
With the controller designed by this, it is difficult to obtain
a large improvement in the tracking accuracy of the
optoelectronic tracking system. Therefore, it is very important
to improve the anti-disturbance capability of the photoelectric
tracking system.
High-performance optoelectronic tracking systems must
be robust, robust, without overshoot, without static
aberrations, robust to external disturbances and system
parameter changes. In order to improve system performance,
experts have carried out research on advanced control
methods and achieved certain research results[2][3][4].
Among them, sliding-mode control (SMC) is insensitive to
system parameter changes and various types of disturbances,
and has the advantages of good robustness, fast response and
easy implementation, which can effectively solve the above
problems in practical applications[5]. In [6], SMC is used to
the permanent magnet synchronous motor speed control

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system, which effectively reduces the influence of external Open Loop Bode
50
disturbance on the motor torque and improves the system's Measure
rapidity and robustness. In [7], SMC is applied to the UAV

Magnitude/dB
Fit

system, which effectively enhances the anti-jamming 0

capability of unmanned helicopters during flight. Based on
this, this paper designs a sliding mode controller to replace the
traditional PID controller. Among them, the sliding model -50
10
0
10
1 2
10
3
10
surface adds the integral term of the position error, and the Frequency/Hz

control law adopts the improved exponential approach law, 0

which effectively suppresses the chattering phenomenon of Measure

Fit
the sliding mode controller and improves the anti-disturbing

Phase/Deg
-200

ability of the photoelectric tracking system. The simulation -400

results verify that the sliding mode control strategy designed
in this paper effectively improves the anti-disturbance -600
0 1 2 3
capability of the optoelectronic tracking system. 10 10
Frequency/Hz
10 10

II. THE DYNAMIC MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF THE Fig. 2. Experimental frequency response of the photoelectric stabilized
OPTOELECTRONIC STABILIZED PLATFORM platform
The simplified structure of the optoelectronic stabilized
Let x1 = θ (t ) , x2 = θ(t ) , the state space description
platform is shown in Fig. 1. The position sensor uses a CCD
sensor. equation of the system can be expressed as:
­ x1 = x2
® (2)
¯ x2 = −a0 x1 − a1 x2 + bu + d
Stabilized platform Assumption 1: The disturbances d(t) are bounded by
D ≥ d (t ) .

III. THE DESIGN OF SLIDING MODE CONTROL

Stabilized platform base
Disturbance platorm
Disturbance platform base
Fig. 1. The simplified structure of the photoelectric stabilized platform
The open-loop position model can be approximated as the
following second-order controlled object model:
θ(t ) + a1θ(t ) + a 0 θ (t ) = bu (t ) + d (t )
Where θ (t ) is the relative angular displacement of the
visual axis of the optoelectronic stabilized platform relative to
the carrier base; u(t) is the control amount; d(t) is the total
system disturbances, which consists of Internal disturbances
and external disturbances; a 0 , a1 and b is the simplified
coefficient, which can be measured experimentally. The open-
loop frequency response of the optoelectronic stabilized
platform is shown in Fig 2.
Sliding mode control is a special kind of nonlinear control.
It is a kind of switch control with sliding mode, which controls
the state of the system to move over a pre-designed sliding
surface. The sliding mode control method is simple to
implement and has been widely used in many field[8].
The design of the SMC is mainly divided into the
following two steps:
(1) select the sliding model surface
The sliding mode region is present on the sliding model
surface, and the sliding mode motion is progressively
(1) stable and robust.
(2) design the controller
The system state can be reached from any initial point to
the sliding model surface in a limited time and stably and
reliably maintained on the sliding model surface.
For system (2), we design the sliding mode controller as
follows.
First define the following variables

e = θ d − x1 , e = θd − x2 , 
e = θd − x2 (3)
Where e , e and e represent the position error, the velocity
error, and the acceleration error, respectively.
The integral sliding surface is selected as follows:
s = ce + e + c0 ³ e (4)

Where c>0, c0 >0. The integral term is used to reduce the

steady state error.
In addition, if the initial conditions of the integration are
designed, the initial point of the system motion can be set on

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the sliding surface, and the approaching motion can be
eliminated, so that the system has the robustness of the whole
time period.
The derivative of the sliding surface (4) will be calculated
as follows:
Hence the final sliding mode controller is designed as:
1
u = (-cx 1 + a0 x1 + a1 x2 − c0 x1 + θd + cθd
b (10)
+c0θ d + ks + q sats)

s = ce + 
e + c0 e
= c(θd − x2 ) + (θd − x2 ) + c0 (θ d − x1 )
= -cx 1 + a0 x1 + a1 x2 − bu − c0 x1 + θd + cθd + c0θ d − d
(5)
In the last century, the academician Gao Weibing
proposed the concept of approaching law. Its purpose is to
improve the dynamic characteristics of the system
approaching movement stage by designing different approach
laws. Since the chattering phenomenon is caused by the
unsatisfactory motion state when the system state experiences
the approaching phase to the sliding surface, the approach law
is directly related to the approaching law, therefore, the
approach law design method is a direct and effective method
to solve the chattering problem. This paper adapts the
exponential approach law
s = −ks − ε signs
Proof of stability:
The main problem of sliding mode variable structure
control design is to design a suitable sliding model surface and
control law, so that the state trajectory of the system reaches
the designed sliding model surface in a limited time, realize
the sliding mode motion, and ensure the sliding mode motion
is progressively stable and has a good dynamic quality.
Therefore, the controller must have the existence, accessibility
and stability of the sliding mode[9].
The point for the sliding mode region is the point that ends
at the sliding model surface. When the system state moves to
the vicinity of the sliding model surface s=0, there must be
lim s ≤ 0and lim− s ≥ 0 (11)
s → 0+ s→0
It can also be written as
(6) lim ss ≤ 0 (12)
s →0

Where k and ε are positive constants. You can change the
approach speed and chattering level by adjusting the
parameter k and ε .
Combine the formulas (5) and (6) to obtain the following
controller˖
1
u = (-cx 1 + a0 x1 + a1 x2 − c0 x1 + θd + cθd
b (7)
+c0θ d + ks + ε signs − d )
Since the disturbance d is unknown, we further modify the
control law as follows:
1 sliding mode.
u = (-cx 1 + a0 x1 + a1 x2 − c0 x1
b (8)
+θd + cθd + c0θ d + ks + qsigns)
Because when the system state moves to the sliding model
surface, in the actual application, the upper equal sign is
removed to ensure the system robustness, and the initial point
of the actual system is not necessarily near the sliding model
surface, but in any position in the state space. At this time, the
system motion is required to approach the sliding model
surface, that is, the accessibility condition is satisfied,
otherwise the system cannot start the sliding mode motion,
and the limit symbol of the formula (12) is removed and
becomes
ss < 0 (13)
The above formula is the accessibility condition of the
To analyze the stability of the sliding mode, consider the
following Lyapunov function

Where q>ε +D . 1 2
V= s (14)
2
In addition, when the disturbance existing in the system is
large, the switching gain q needs to be large, which causes a The derivative of the function (13) is
large chattering. In order to prevent chattering, the controller V = ss (15)
uses the saturation function sat(s) instead of the symbol
function sign(s), which is The function V is positive definite, according to the
Lyapunov stability condition, as long as its derivative is
­1, s > Δ negative, the system can be guaranteed to be progressively
°s stable, this is V < 0 .
°
sat( s ) = ® , s ≤ Δ (9)
°Δ Combined with formulas (5), (8) and (15)
°̄−1, s < −Δ
V = s (-cx 1 + a0 x1 + a1 x2 − bu − c0 x1
Where, Δ is the boundary layer.
+θ + cθ + c θ − d )
d d 0 d
The essence of sliding mode control using a saturation
= s (− ks − qsigns − d ) (16)
function is: outside the boundary layer, the switching control
2
is used to make the system state quickly approach the sliding = −ks − sd − q s
mode; within the boundary layer, feedback control is
≤ − sd − q s
employed to reduce chattering that occurs when the sliding
mode is rapidly switched. Because of q > D ≥ d , so

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 V < 0 (17) simulation results verify the effectiveness of the control
strategy described in this paper and achieve good control
Therefore, the system is stable, and any tracking error can results.
approach zero in a limited time.
REFERENCES
IV. SIMULATION ANALYSIS
[1] Chen Juan. Digital servo control technology of photoelectric theodolite
In order to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the [M]. Changchun Institute of Optics, internal lectures, 2006.
sliding mode controller designed in this paper, the [2] J. A. R. Krishna Moorty㸪Rajeev Marathe㸪V. R. Sule. H҄ control
Matlab/Simulink simulation study of the system (2) was law for line-of-sight stabilization for mobile land vehicles[J].Optical
carried out and compared with the traditional PID control engineering㸪2016㸪41㸦11㸧㸸2935-2944.
strategy. [3] J. A. R. Krishna Moorty㸪Rajeev Marathe㸪B. Hari. Fuzzy controller
for line of sight stabilization system[J].Optical Engineering㸪2014㸪
The block diagram of the system structure based on sliding 43㸦6㸧㸸1394-1400.
mode control is shown in Fig. 3. [4] K.K.Tan㸪T.H.Lee. Composite control of agyro mirror line-ofsight
stabilization platform-design and auto-tuning[J].ISA Transactions.
d 2016㸪40㸦1㸧㸸155-171.
[5] J. Yang 㸪 S. Li 㸪 X. Yu.Sliding-mode control for systems with
r + y mismatched uncertainties via a disturbance observer [J].IEEE
93) × -9 Transactions on Industrial Electronics㸪2013㸪60㸦1㸧㸸160-169.
[6] Wang Haibo, Zhou Bo, Fang Sizhen. Sliding Mode Control of
Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Speed Control System[J].
))* Proceedings of the CSEE, 2009 24(Si): 71-77.

[7] Fang Xing. Research on robust flight control algorithm for small
Fig. 3. The block diagram of the system structure based on sliding mode unmanned helicopters under non-matching disturbance [D]. Tianjin:
control Tianjin University, 2016.
The disturbance rejection ratios of the PID controller and [8] Liu Jinkun. Sliding Mode Variable Structure Control MATLAB
Simulation. [M]. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2005.
SMC are measured separately, and the results are shown in
[9] Chen Zhimei, Wang Zhenyan, Zhang Jinggang. Theory and application
Fig. 4. of sliding mode variable structure control [M]. Beijing: Publishing
Disturbance Suppression Characteristic
House of Electronics Industry, 2012.
40
PID
20
Magnitude/dB

SMC
0

-20

-40

-60
0 1 2 3
10 10 10 10

200

0
Phase/Deg

-200

-400

-600
0 1 2 3
10 10 10 10
Frequency/Hz

Fig. 4. the results of The disturbance rejection ratios

It can be seen from Fig. 4 that in the range of 1-50 Hz, the
sliding mode control strategy is compared with the PID
control strategy, and the disturbance rejection ratio is
improved by about 10 DB. It can be seen that the sliding mode
controller designed in this paper can effectively improve the
anti-disturbance of the system and verify the effectiveness of
the control strategy.
V. CONCLUSIONS
Because sliding mode control has the advantages of fast
response, insensitivity to parameter changes and external
disturbances, and simple physical implementation, this paper
designs a sliding mode control algorithm for the
optoelectronic stabilized platform. Among them, the sliding
model surface adds the integral term of the position error, and
the control law adopts the improved exponential approach
law. Compared with the traditional PID control algorithm, the
sliding mode control can effectively improve the anti-
disturbance capability of the system. Theoretical analysis and

410
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