TABLE OF CONTENTS There is a broad class of methods for control system design in the presence of varying plant parameters and unknown external disturbances. Only a small subset of these is considered in this chapter. The reviewed methods are directly related to the matter of the control system design methodology in the book. In particular, a short overview of robust control synthesis techniques under uncertainty is given, where our main attention is devoted to the discussion of nonadaptive approaches such as control systems with the highest derivative of the output signal and high gain in the feedback loop, control systems with state vector and high gain in the feedback loop, and control systems with sliding motions. The interdependencies between these methods are discussed, and the main steps of the design procedures are highlighted.
This section is related to the essence of the preceding chapter, with special emphasis placed on nonlinear control systems. With these systems we are naturally motivated to impose the desired performance criteria in terms of state space notions; after that, specific design techniques may be discussed. For this reason, let us select two methods in modern nonlinear control theory in order to specify the desired behavior as well as the requirement of insensitivity of the closed-loop system transients with respect to the external disturbances and varying parameters of the plant model.
The first method is based on the construction of the desired vector field in the state space...
