A NONLINEAR CONTROL STRATEGY FOR ROBUST SLIDING MODE PERFORMANCE IN THE PRESENCE OF UNMATCHED UNCERTAINTY

It is well known that sliding mode control schemes provide robustness to the class of uncertainty acting within channels implicit in the control inputs: the so-called matched uncertainty. However, the unmatched uncertainty will affect the ideal dynamics prescribed by the chosen switching surfaces. This paper develops a control strategy to minimize the effects of the unmatched uncertainty upon the dynamic performance prescribed by the switching surfaces. This is achieved for a subclass of the uncertainty class considered by previous authors. The practical application of the control strategy to the design of a stability augmentation system for a light aircraft is presented. For this problem an ideal performance is well known and it is desirable that these ideal dynamics are exhibited across a wide range of flight conditions without degradation.