A Time Delay Controller for Systems With Unknown Dynamics

This paper focuses on the control of systems with unknown dynamics and deals with the class of systems described by x˙=f(x,t) + h(x,t) + B(x,t)u + d(t) where h(x,t) and d(t) are unknown dynamics and unexpected disturbances, respectively. A new control method, Time Delay Control (TDC), is proposed for such systems. Under the assumption of accessibility to all the state variables and estimates of their delayed derivatives, the TDC is characterized by a simple estimation technique that evaluates a function representing the effect of uncertainties. This is accomplished using time delay. The control system’s structure, stability and design issues are discussed for linear time-invariant and single-input-single-output systems. Finally, the control performance was evaluated through both simulations and experiments. The theoretical and experimental results indicate that this control method shows excellent robustness properties to unknown dynamics and disturbances.