The increasing energy demand and the target to reduce environmental pollution make it essential to use efficient and environment-friendly renewable energy systems. One of these systems is the Photovoltaic (PV) system which generates energy subject to variation in environmental conditions such as temperature and solar radiations. In the presence of these variations, it is necessary to extract the maximum power via the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller. This paper presents a nonlinear generalized global sliding mode controller (GGSMC) to harvest maximum power from a PV array using a DC-DC buck-boost converter. A feed-forward neural network (FFNN) is used to provide a reference voltage. A GGSMC is designed to track the FFNN generated reference subject to varying temperature and sunlight. The proposed control strategy, along with a modified sliding mode control, eliminates the reaching phase so that the sliding mode exists throughout the time. The system response observes no chattering and harmonic distortions. Finally, the simulation results using MATLAB/Simulink environment demonstrate the effectiveness, accuracy, and rapid tracking of the proposed control strategy. The results are compared with standard results of the nonlinear backstepping controller under abrupt changes in environmental conditions for further validation.

In robotic manipulators, feedback control of nonlinear systems with fast finite-time convergence is desirable. However, because of the parametric and model uncertainties, the robust control and tuning of the robotic manipulators pose many challenges related to the trajectory tracking of the robotic system. This research proposes a state-of-the-art control algorithm, which is the combination of fast integral terminal sliding mode control (FIT-SMC), robust exact differentiator (RED) observer, and feedforward neural network (FFNN) based estimator. Firstly, the dynamic model of the robotic manipulator is established for the n-degrees of freedom (DoFs) system by taking into account the dynamic LuGre friction model. Then, a FIT-SMC with friction compensation-based nonlinear control has been proposed for the robotic manipulator. In addition, a RED observer is developed to get the estimates of robotic manipulator joints’ velocities. Since the dynamic friction state of the LuGre friction model is unmeasurable, FFNN is established for training and estimating the friction torque. The Lyapunov method is presented to demonstrate the finite-time sliding mode enforcement and state convergence for a robotic manipulator. The proposed control approach has been simulated in the MATLAB/Simulink environment and compared with the system with no observer to characterize the control performance. Simulation results obtained with the proposed control strategy affirm its effectiveness for a multi-DoF robotic system with model-based friction compensation having an overshoot and a settling time less than 1.5% and 0.2950 seconds, respectively, for all the joints of the robotic manipulator.

In this work, a photovoltaic (PV) system integrated with a non-inverting DC-DC buck-boost converter to extract maximum power under varying environmental conditions such as irradiance and temperature is considered. In order to extract maximum power (via maximum power transfer theorem), a robust nonlinear arbitrary order sliding mode-based control is designed for tracking the desired reference, which is generated via feed forward neural networks (FFNN). The proposed control law utilizes some states of the system, which are estimated via the use of a high gain differentiator and a famous flatness property of nonlinear systems. This synthetic control strategy is named neuro-adaptive arbitrary order sliding mode control (NAAOSMC). The overall closed-loop stability is discussed in detail and simulations are carried out in Simulink environment of MATLAB to endorse effectiveness of the developed synthetic control strategy. Finally, comparison of the developed controller with the backstepping controller is done, which ensures the performance in terms of maximum power extraction, steady-state error and more robustness against sudden variations in atmospheric conditions.

This paper presents novel chattering-free robust control strategies for addressing disturbances and uncertainties in a two-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) dynamic model, with a focus on the highly nonlinear and strongly coupled nature of the system. The novelty lies in the development of sliding mode control (SMC), integral sliding mode control (ISMC), and terminal sliding mode control (TSMC) laws specifically tailored for the twin-rotor MIMO system (TRMS). These strategies are validated through both simulation and real-time experiments. A key contribution is the introduction of a uniform robust exact differentiator (URED) to recover rotor speed and missing derivatives, combined with a nonlinear state feedback observer to improve system observability. A feedback linearization approach, using lie derivatives and diffeomorphism principles, is employed to decouple the system into horizontal and vertical subsystems. Comparative analysis of the transient performance of the proposed controllers, with respect to metrics such as settling time, overshoot, rise time, and steady-state errors, is provided. The ISMC method, in particular, effectively mitigates the chattering issue prevalent in traditional SMC, improving both system performance and actuator longevity. Experimental results on the TRMS demonstrate the superior tracking performance and robustness of the proposed control laws in the presence of nonlinearities, uncertainties, and external disturbances. This research contributes a comprehensive control design framework with proven real-time implementation, offering significant advancements over existing methodologies.