Observer-based sliding mode control for a class of uncertain nonlinear neutral delay systems

In this paper, the observer-based sliding mode control (SMC) problem is investigated for a class of uncertain nonlinear neutral delay systems. A new robust stability condition is proposed first for the sliding mode dynamics, then a sliding mode observer is designed, based on which an observer-based controller is synthesized by using the SMC theory combined with the reaching law technique. Then, a sufficient condition of the asymptotic stability is proposed in terms of linear matrix inequality (LMI) for the overall closed-loop system composed of the observer dynamics and the state estimation error dynamics. Furthermore, the reachability problem is also discussed. It is shown that the proposed SMC scheme guarantees the reachability of the sliding surfaces defined in both the state estimate space and the state estimation error space, respectively. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed design scheme.