Design of Variable Structure Control with Bounded Inputs

The design of variable structure system inputs which are constrained by saturation is studied. For a LTI system which satisfies some conditions, it is shown that appropriate bounded controllers guarantee the system’s global stability and maximize the sliding mode domain on the switching surfaces. Stability conditions of variable structure systems with constrained inputs are relaxed, and the stability of the closed-loop system is guaranteed by using passivity theory of linear passive systems. Moreover, nonlinear sliding surfaces are discussed for variable structure controller design, and a novel nonlinear switching surface is proposed. Finally, the proposed methods are applied to a 2nd order LTI system to show their usefulness.