Sliding mode control for a class of nonlinear discrete-time networked systems with multiple stochastic communication delays

In this article, a sliding mode control problem is studied for a class of uncertain nonlinear networked systems with multiple communication delays. A sequence of stochastic variables obeying Bernoulli distribution is applied in the system model to describe the randomly occurring communication delays. The discrete-time system considered is also subject to parameter uncertainties and state-dependent stochastic disturbances. A novel discrete switching function is proposed to facilitate the sliding mode controller design. The sufficient conditions are derived by means of the linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach. It is shown that the system dynamics in the specified sliding surface is robustly exponentially stable in the mean square if two LMIs with an equality constraint are feasible. A discrete-time SMC controller is designed that is capable of guaranteeing the discrete-time sliding-mode reaching condition of the specified sliding surface. Finally, a simulation example is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.