Robust stabilization of competing species in the chemostat

•Coexistence of multi-species in a continuous bioreactor can be assured by using feedback control.•While coexisting, these species can be stabilized in a finite-time using sliding-mode control.•By means of the proposed methodology, robustness against bounded parametric uncertanties on the kinetic rates are easily compensated.•Time-varying fluctuations on the kinetic rates’ parameters are shown to be easily tackled. This work addresses the problem of robust stabilization of the concentrations of two different species of living organisms, which compete for a single limiting substrate in a bioreactor. This stabilization is performed using discontinuous feedback control laws that ensure the coexistence of all species. The control laws are designed considering bounded parametric uncertainties on the kinetic rates.