TP13 4:20 -
MATLAB Design of Sliding Mode Multivariable Control
Alan S.I. Zinober'
School of Mathematics and Statistics
University of Sheffield
Slieffield S10 2TN
United Kingdom
Ahs t rac t
A MATLAB Toolbox is now available for the coin-
puter aided design of tlie sliding mode and feedback
control law for Variable Structure Control (VSC) SYS-
tems.The methods programmed allow the straiglit-
forward design of sliding hyperplanes by various ap-
proaches including complete and partial eigenstruc-
ture assignment, and reduction of the sensitivity to
uninatclied parameter variations. 111addition tlie user
can design the control law and simulate the closetl-
loop system. This package caii be used with little
knowledge required of VSC t.lieory.
1. Introductioii
We first describe some of the main features of Vari-
able Structure Control (VSC) and the sliding mode.
VSC is a well-known solution to tlie prohleni of t.he
deterministic control of uncertain systems, since it
yields invariance t,o a class of parameter variations
(Draienovit, 19G9, Utkin, 1977, 1992; Ut,kin and
Yang, 1978; DeCarlo et al, 1988, Zinober 1990, 1993).
The characterizing feature of VSC is sliding ino-
tion, which occurs when the system state repeatedly
crosses certain subspaces, or slidiiig hyperplanes, in
the state space. A VSC controller comprises nonlin-
ear and linear parts, and has been well studied in the
literature.
One can design tlie sliding hyperplane by selcthg 11o11
space eigenvalues within the left-hand half-plane for
the reduced order equivalent system, which are asso-
ciated with the sliding liyperplaiies, and then design-
ing the control to yield these eigerivalues (Dorling and
Zinober, 198G). Additionally one may wish to s p c
cify fully (or partially) tlie eigenvectors correspond-
ing to the closed-loop eigenvalues. There exists tlie
additional possibility of reducing t,he sensitivity of the
specified eigenvalues to unmatched parameter uncer-
tainty (Dorling and Zinober, 1988).
'This reseanzh was support,ed I J ~SERC grant CR/EJG943
0 1993 IEEE
0191-2216/93/$3.00
An alternative design approach is to specify some re-
gioii ~ I Ithe left-hand half-plane within which these
eigenvalues must lie. Regions studied include the
disc, vertical strip and damping sector in the left-
liand half-plane. The methods for ensuring that the
eigenvdues will lie in the required region involve the
solntion of certain matrix Riccati equations.
After presenting the underlying theory of the sliding
mode, we shall describe in this paper some of the
tecliniques relating to the design of the hyperplanes
related to the sliding mode. We describe briefly the
quadratic performance approach (Utkin and Yang,
19733, and then consider eigenstructure assignment
and the mixed eigenstructure and sensitivity reduc-
tion problem. We briefly present a suitable control
law to ensure tlie attainment of the sliding mode. All
these techniques have been programmed in a user-
friendly VSC Toolbox in the MATLAB environment.
An example is presented.
2. The ~egulatOl*
System
Consitlcr the uncertain regulator
i ( t ) = [ A + h A ( l ) ] z ( l ) + [ B + A B ( t ) ] ~ ( t ) + fU)( z (1)
,
where c is an n-vector of states and U is an m-vector
of controls. It is assumed that n > m , that B is
of full rank in and that the pair ( A , B ) is control-
lable. The matrices AA and AB represent tlie vari-
ations and uncertainties in the plant parameters and
tlie control interface respectively. f represents un-
certain time-varying additive terms. It is assumed
fnrther that the control interface uncertainties are
matched and occur only on tlie control channels; i.e.
R(8)= R.([B,AB]) (where 'IC(.) denotes the range
+
space); and that rank [B AB(t)] = m for all t 2 0.
Tlie overall aim of VSC is to drive the system state
from an initial condition r(0) to the state space origin
as 1 .-* 00. Tlie jtli component t t j ( j = 1,. . . , m) of
the state feedback control vector U(.) has a discon-
tinuity on tlie jtli switching surface which is a hyper-
plane A l j passing through tlie state origin. Defining
2471
the hyperplanes by
Mj = {z : cjx = O}, ( j= 1 , 2 , .. . ,m ) (2)
(where cj is a row n-vector), the sliding mode occurs
when the state lies in A f j for all j, i.e. in the sliding
subspace
m
M = n
j=1
hfj (3)
In practice the control discontinuity may be replaced
by a sofl nonlinearity to reduce chattering (Burton
and Zinober, 198G).
3. Model-Follow iiig C oiit1-01
Model-following control systems are very widely used
in practice and their control using VSC can achieved
in a manner very similar to the regulator systein
(Zinober et al, 1982). Consider t,he system
where the first equation (as in ( 1 j ) describes t4heac-
tual plant, and the second equation is t,he model plant,
with xn, an n-vector of model st.at,es and r a vector
of reference inputs. It is desired t.liat t.lie actual plant.
states follow the model stales. The error
should be forced to zero as time t
choice of the control U.
- oc, by suita.ble
Subject to the matrices A , B , All, AI?, A,,, a.nd
satisfying certain structural and niatcliing properties
(Landau, 1979), we can achieve the desired objective
with suitable control. The error model satisfies
i(t) = A,e(t) + [(Al,, - A ) r ( f .-) f + Bllxr(l)]- Btr(t)
(6)
and, subject to certain matching condit~ions(see Spur-
geon et al, 1990), the model equations with suitable
linear control components, reduce to
- Uu(t)
e ( t ) = -4,71e(2) (7)
The VSC of this error system may be readily de-
signed, using the techniques previously described, hy
associating e with z in earlier sections. The sliding
hyperplanes are iiow in the error state space.
Further details and examples of practical time-
varying and nonlinear avionics syst.eiiis are given in
Spurgeon et a1 (1990).
2472
4. The Sliding Mode
When considering tile synthesis of the sliding hyper-
planes, it is sufficient to study the ideal regulator sys-
tem, without uncertainties and disturbances, given by
Matched uncertainties are handled by suitable choice
of tlie control function. From (2) the sliding mode
satisfies
s = C + ( t )= 0 , 12 1, (9)
where 1, is the time when the sliding subspace is
reached, and C is an m x n matrix. Differentiating
equation (9) with respect to time, and substituting
for 5 ( f ) from (8) gives
+
C'i(t) = C A z ( t ) CBu(t)= O , t 2 t, (IO)
Equa.tion (10) inay be rearranged to give
The hyperplane matrix C is selected so that lCBl #
0, and therefore the product CB is invertible. Hence
( 1 1) inay be rearranged to give the following expres-
sion for tlie e q u z z d e n t conirol,
~ . , ~ (=t )-(CB)-lCA;c(t) = - K z ( t ) (12)
where u e q ( t )is the linear open-loop control which
would force the trajectory to remain in the null space
of C , during sliding. Substituting for u e q ( t )from
equation (12) into (8) gives
i ( t ) = {I - B ( C B ) - ' C } A z ( t ) (13)
= (,4- BK);c(t) (14)
which is t*hesystem equation for the closed-loop sys-
t,eiu dyna.mics during sliding.
This inot.ion is independent of the actual nonlinear
cont.ro1 and depends only on the choice of C , which
det.ermines the matrix K. The purpose of the control
'ti is to drive the state into the sliding subspace M ,
and thereafter to niaintaiii it within the subspace M .
The convergence of t,he state vector to the origin is
ensured by suitable choice of the feedback matrix I<.
The determination of tallematrix Ii' or alternatively,
the deter~ninationof the matrix C defining the sub-
space M , inay be achieved without. prior knowledge
of the forin of the control vector U. (The reverse is not
true). The null space of C,N ( C ) ,and the range space
of B, 72(B), are, under the hypotheses given earlier,
complementary suhpaces, so N ( C ) n R(B)= (0).
Since motion lies ei~t~irely within N ( C ) during the
ideal sliding mode, the dynamic behaviour of the sys-
tem during sliding is unaffected by the controls, as
they act only within R ( B ) . The developinenk of the
theory and design principles is simplified by using a
particular canonical form for the system, wliicli is
closely related to the Kalnian canonical form for a
multivariable linear syst,em.
By assumption the matrix B has full rank i n ; so there
exists an orthogonal I I x n transformation ma.t8rix7
such that
( Bo? )
where B:! is ?TI x In and nonsingular. The orthogonnl-
ity restriction is imposed on 7 for reasons of numer-
ical stability, and to remove the. problem of invert-
ing 7 when transforming back t,o t>heoriginal system.
The transformed state is y = Tx,and tlie state equa-
tion becomes
Y ( t ) = T A P y ( t )+ ' T B u ( f )
The sliding condition is C ' 7 T y ( f ) = 0, V 1 2 1,. If
the transformed stmatey is now partitioned as
and t,he matrices 7 A 7 ? ' , 7 B aiitl C'TT are parti-
tioned accordingly, then equation (16) may be writ t ~ i
as the following pair of equations
The sliding condition becomes
ClYl(t) + C&t) =0 , t 2t ,
where
7ATT = ( it: iz ) , C!'TT = ( C ,
('LO)
and C2 is nonsingiilar because C'B is nonsingular.
This canonical form is central to hyperplane design
methods and it plays a significant role i n the solution
of tlie reachability problem, i.e. the determination
of the control forin ensuring the attninnient of tlw
sliding mode in M (Utkin and Yang, 1978; Dorling
and Zinober, 1980).
Equation (19) defining the sliding inodc is equivalent
to
y.(t) = -Fy1(f) (21)
where the m x ( I I - i n ) mal r i s f' is tlcfiiictl
F = CrF'Ci
so that. i n the sliding mode 92 is related linearly to
T J ~ The
, sliding mode satisfies equation (21) and
yi = -4iiYl(t) +A12~2(t) (23)
This represents an ( n - m )tli order system in which
y2 plays the role of a state feedback control. So we
get
Jil(t) = (Ail - A12f')yi(t) (24)
which is known as the reduced order equivalent sys-
tem. The design of a stable sliding mode such that
- 0 as f - cm,requires the determination of the
y
gaiii matrix F such that All - A12F has n - ?TI left-
h a 11d Ira I f-pl a ne eigenvalues .
5. Design of Slidiiig Hyperplane
In this section we consider a variety of approaches to
the design of the sliding hyperplanes.
(16)
5.1. Quadratic Performance
One way to design the sliding hyperplanes is by min-
imizing t8hcqiia.dratic performance
i
J = ils CO
xTQxdt
where the matrix Q > 0 is positive definite symmetric
and t,. is tohetime of attaining the sliding mode (see
litkin and Yang (1978)). The matrix F (22) is readily
determintd once a matrix Riccati equation has been
solved.
(19) 5.2. E i g e n s t r u c t u r e Assignment
For the multiva.ria.ble system Utkin and Yang (1978)
('2)
ha.ve shown t,hat the pair (All, A12) is controllable
and tlial eigcnva.lue assignment in (24) is therefore
feasible. It, is well known, however, that the assign-
ment of eigenvalues of a.n izth order m.input system
requires only n of tlie nm d.0.f. available in clioos-
ing tlie feedback gain matrix (Shah et al 1975). The
remaining n(m - 1) d.0.f. ma.y be utilized in some
other waS;; i n part,icula.r, by partially assigning the
eigenvectors. For convenience it is assumed here that
t.lie n o n z ( ~ sliding
o mode eigenvalues are distinct from
each other and from t,lre eigenvalues of A1 Suppose
t,lint8the sliding mode Iias commenced on N ( C ) .Then
i ( 1 ) = ( A- Bli)x(t) (20)
wliere A' is defined by (12). During the sliding mode
by I must, reiiiain in ,b'(C), so that
(22) C(il - B K ) = 0 e X , ( A - BIG) C_ N ( C ) (27)
2473
 -
Let { A i : i = 1, ...,n} be the eigenvalues of .4 BK
with corresponding eigenvectors Iris Then (2'7) implies
that
C ( A - B K ) v ~= XiCtli = 0 ('28)
so that either A i is zero or vi E N ( C ) . Now A,, =
A-BK has precisely m zero-valued eigenvaliies, so let
-
A = { X i : i = 1, ...,n. in} be the nonzero distinct ei-
genvalues. Specifying the corresponding eigenvectors
{vi : i = 1 , . . .,n - m} fixes t.he null space or C,since
dim N ( C ) = n - m. However, C is not uniquely
determined, because
cv = 0, v = (Vl . . (29)
has m2 degrees of freedom. Defining
W= (2)= T V
with the partitioning of W compatible with that. of
y, (29) becomes
giving the equation
FWI = -Pi'? (32)
Tlie eigenvectors vi of A - B K are iiot generally freely
assignable. At most m elenient,s of an eigenvector
may be assigned arbitrarily, after which the remaining
n - m elements are fully determined by the assigned
elements. Full details of the theory have appeared
elsewhere (Dorling and Zinober, 1986).
The concept of assignable subspaces is applied to slid-
ing mode design as follows. The designer selects the
desired elements of the closed-loop eigenvector U, cor-
responding to a nonzero sliding inode eigenvalue A,.
If r (1 5 r 5 m) elements of ut are specified, the
-
remaining n r elements are determined directly by
solving tlie equation H*(Ai)'Tv,= 0 (see Dorling and
Zinober, 198G), taking tlie minimum norm solution if
r < m. If more than in but less than 11 elements are
specified, m < r < n,a quadratic programming prob-
lem needs to be solved; i.e. determine an assignable
eigenvector using a least squares fit to the specified
elements whilst minimizing the contribution of the
remaining elements. If all of the n elements of vi
are specified, the assignability of the vector is tested
by transforming it and applying the assignability re-
quirement. If this result is nonzero, vi must be mod-
ified to give the closest assignable eigc~nvector,wliich
is found by projection into the current assignable
subspace N(H*(Ai)?-)- All these perniutations have
been programmed in the Toolbox.
2474
1
5.3. Semit ivit y Reduction
When the matcliing criterion does not hold, VSC will
not yield total invariance to all the parameter uncer-
tainties (Utkin, 1977). It may be useful to attempt to
minimize the sensitivity of the location of the closed-
loop eigenvalues to unmatched parameter variations.
We can use any remaining degrees of freedom to select
unspecified elements of the eigenvectors so as to min-
imize the sensitivity. An algorithm for sliding hyper-
plane design has been described (Dorling and Zinober
lo$$), incorporating the algorithm of Kautsky and
Nichols (1983). Tlie algorithm yields a near minimum
value for the spectral condition number, ~ ( v )using,
an iterative algorithm, which minimizes a related con-
ditioning measure lit. In the MATLAB VSC Toolbox
an additional algorithm has been included which com-
bines the previously described eigenstructure assign-
meiit techniques (Section 5.2.) with tlie sensitivity re-
duction approach. After computing s (s < n - m) ei-
genvectors according to the specified criteria, the re-
maining n - m - s eigenvectors are determined using
the iterative sensitivity reduction approach. Avail-
able degrees of freedom are used to select unspecified
eigenvectors so as to miiiiniize the measure IC,.
5.4. Eigeiivalue Assignment in a Region
Eigenvaloes can also be assigned to lie in regions of
the coniplex plane, e.g. disc, sector, strip (see Wood-
hain and Zinober, 1000, 1991, 1993).
6. Feedback Coiitrol Law
Once the sliding hyperplanes have been selected, at-
tention must be turned to solving the reachability
problem. This involves the selection of a state feed-
back cont.rol function U : 72" + amwhich will drive
the state t into N ( C ) and thereafter maintain it
within taliissubspace. In general tlie variable struc-
ture control law consists of two parts ; a linear control
law ut and a nonlinear part U " , which are added to
form U. Tlie linear control is merely a state feedback
controller
ue(2) = Lx (33)
while the nordinear feedback controller U, incorpor-
ates the discountinuoi~selements of the control law.
Consider here the nonlinear unit vector control
yielding the control (Ryan and Corless, 1984)
(35)
where the null spaces of N , A4 and C are coincident : eigenvector element. We consider the eigenvalue X =
, V ( N ) = , V ( M ) = ,V(C). m range s p c e eigenvalues -1.
need to be specified t,o ac.liieve suitably fast approach
of the state to the sliding hoperplnnc. For the inore For ti:, = (1, 0, *,*,*,*) we obtain
general system (1) in which disturbaiices and uncer-
tainties are present, a similar cont>rolstructure inay UT = (l,O, -.0388, .0388, -.2140, -.3053)
be employed. However, in t,Iiis case the sca1a.r pis re-
placed by a time-va.rying st,at,e-dependentfuiict.ion in-
corporating two desigil pa.rameters y1,72, upon which For = (1,0, -0.5, *, *,*) we obtain
the time to reach h f ( C )also depends (Rya.11a.nd Cor-
less, 1984). Di~cont~inuous relay-type cont.rol wises = (1.0040, -.1914,-.3979, .3979,-1.2345,-1.6714)
with 6 = 0, while a s~na.llpositive value of 6 yields a
smooth control by elimina.t.ingt,lie chatt,er mode (Bur-
ton and Zinober, 1986). For v : ~ = (1,0, - 3 , .5, *,*) we obtain

= (1.0045, -.2153, -.4426, .442G, -1.3615,-1.8414)

7. Example

To illudrate the tlieory we have solvcd the followi~~g
example of a remotely piloted veliicle (RI'\') (Safonov
et al, 1981) using the MATLAB rI'oolI~os
i! = Ax + Btr (36)
\\'it11 the specified eigenvector 2/& we obtain for the
sliding inode eigenvalues A = {-1, -2, -3, -4) using
t,lie seiisitivit,y reduct,ion technique for assigning the
reniaiiiing eigenvectors the reduced order (91-space)
eigenvector inatris

1
with n = G a.nd 177 = 2 -.9985 .1440 .lo07 -.9353
.0387 .4301 -.3113 .0009
P,!i =
(i) We consider first the quadratic perfornlance ap- -.0387 -.MO1 .9338 -.0035
proach. For Q = I,, the VSC Toolbox yields 0 ,2334 -.144G -.3530

F= [ 2,640
-.4995
1.ii36
-1.1616
1.1102 -2.1252
-.7489 1.2822 1 and

with result iiig eigenvalues

F= [ .3812 13.1623 8.8499 -12.83G1
.5349 18.3054 12.3844 -17.5811 I
A = (-31.8682, -22.4504, -4.9609, -.G838]
(iv) We next, assign the eigeiivalues of the sliding
For Q = diag( 1,5,10,15,20,25) mode to lie i n a sector. Suppose a = -1 and 0 = 0,
with Q = 10Z4 and R = we get
F= [ 0.1943
-.0967
1.0389 ,7154 -1.2218
-.5734 -.3950 .G235 1 I.'= [ 2.5601 13.4G19 2.7937
-1.1207 -13.5987 -1.9521 -4.6892
with A = (-26.3189. -4.9i16 f 'L.lOi'Li,-.6823}.
with t,he eigenvalues
(ii) Suppose t,hat we wish to place t.he eigenvaliies of
the sliding hyperplanes at, the 11 - ni (= 4) specified A = {-121.9553, -1G.G07G, -5.4937, -1.1107)
locat.ions in t,he left,-haiicl half-plane of the coniplcs
plane
A = (-1, - 2 . - 3 . -4} \Vit,li Q = G I 4 and R = 12 we obtain

The VSC MATLAB Toolbox yields A = {-94.0G77,-17.F!r)0, -5.3790,-1.0104)

F= [ .i481 13.1149 8.G078 -13.8084

1.0580 18.3794 12.0859 -18.9744 1 while Q = q 1 4 , q 5 5 does not place the eigenvalues
in the appropriat,e region.

( v ) We can assign t,he eigenvalues to lie within a disc

(iii) For our example, with 711 = 2 , we can specify for For the disc w i t h centre -2 and radius 1 we obtain
a given eigenvalue at most two desired elements of
an eigenvector ' u d , and obtain an esact solution. We
shall use the symbol * to iiidjcate an unspecified
F= [ .4005 8.28G7 7.4507
-7A527
.5GG1 11.5734 10.4775 -10.2811 I
2475
 and eigenvalues
(-2.3479, -1.2518, -2.0021 f .0044i}
(vi) To achieve sufficiently fast niotion to the sliding
surface we should select the range space dynaniics to
be suitably fast. Here we selec; tlie 2 (= m) range
space eigenvalues t o be -2.5, -3.5, i.e.
@* = [ -2*50 -3.5O 1 [8] Safonov, M.G., Laub, A.J. and Hartmann, G.L.,
8. Acknowledgemeiit
The author acknowledges support, under t2heScience
and Engineering Research Council grant<GR/E46943.
9. Conclusions
A number of sliding mode design approaches have
been studied in this paper. They are applicable to
regulator and model-following syst.ems, and also to
tracking problems with suitable modifications. These
and other algorithnls have been incorporated into a
CAD VSC Toolbox in the MATLAB environment.
This user-friendly Toolbox allows the coiit,rol designer
to synthesize the sliding hyperplanes and the feed-
back control law of a VSC system i n a straiglitfor-
ward manner using a wide variet.y of t,echniques. The
MATLAB platforni provides powerful high-level mat-
rix arithmetic and graphical routines for easy by the
user.
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