Adaptive variable structure control of a class of nonlinear systems with unknown Prandtl-Ishlinskii hysteresis

Control of nonlinear systems preceded by unknown hysteresis nonlinearities is a challenging task and has received increasing attention in recent years due to growing industrial demands involving varied applications. In the literature, many mathematical models have been proposed to describe the hysteresis nonlinearities. The challenge addressed here is how to fuse those hysteresis models with available robust control techniques to have the basic requirement of stability of the system. The purpose of the note is to show such a possibility by using the Prandtl-Ishlinskii (PI) hysteresis model. An adaptive variable structure control approach, serving as an illustration, is fused with the PI model without necessarily constructing a hysteresis inverse. The global stability of the system and tracking a desired trajectory to a certain precision are achieved. Simulation results attained for a nonlinear system are presented to illustrate and further validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.