Output tracking control with preview action for a class of continuous-time Lipschitz nonlinear systems and its applications

Abstract

This article presents a novel tracking control technique with preview action for a class of continuous-time Lipschitz nonlinear systems. First, by using the differentiation approach, the considered Lipschitz nonlinear system is formally transformed into a quasi-linear parameter varying system. Then, with the aid of the lifting method along with some special mathematical manipulations, an augmented error system with the known future reference knowledge is successfully constructed. The tracking problem is, thereby, reduced into a standard H_∞ control problem. To guarantee that the closed-loop system remains asymptotically stable and satisfies acceptable H_∞ performance, a suitable state feedback controller is established through testing the feasibility of given linear matrix inequality. Based on this, an innovative tracking control law composed of state feedback control action, integral control action, and preview action of the reference signal is proposed for the first time. Simulation results demonstrate that the suggested controller leads to the superior improvement on the tracking performance than the existing control scheme.