Automatica 60 (2015) 193200

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Automatica
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/automatica

Brief paper

Adaptive tracking control for switched stochastic nonlinear systems

with unknown actuator dead-zone
Xudong Zhao a,b , Peng Shi c,d , Xiaolong Zheng a , Lixian Zhang e
a

College of Engineering, Bohai University, Jinzhou 121013, Liaoning, China

Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia

College of Engineering and Science, Victoria University, Melbourne, Vic. 8001, Australia

School of Astronautics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China

article

info

Article history:
Received 22 October 2014
Received in revised form
9 June 2015
Accepted 4 July 2015
Available online 1 August 2015
Keywords:
Switched systems
Stochastic systems
Adaptive control
Unknown nonsymmetric actuator
dead-zone

abstract
This paper is concerned with the problem of adaptive tracking control for a class of switched stochastic
nonlinear systems in nonstrict-feedback form with unknown nonsymmetric actuator dead-zone and
arbitrary switchings. A variable separation approach is used to overcome the difficulty in dealing with the
nonstrict-feedback structure. Furthermore, by combining radial basis function neural networks universal
approximation ability and adaptive backstepping technique with common stochastic Lyapunov function
method, an adaptive control algorithm is proposed for the considered system. It is shown that the target
signal can be almost surely tracked by the system output, and the tracking error is semi-globally uniformly
ultimately bounded in 4th moment. Finally, the simulation studies for a ship maneuvering system are
presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
As a typical class of hybrid systems, switched systems have
drawn considerable attention in the past decades since many physical systems can be mathematically modeled by such multiplemode systems. Given their widespread applications, the studies on
switched systems never cease and a number of excellent results
have been reported, see for example, Briat (2014), Li, Wen, Soh,
and Xie (2002), Vesely` and Rosinov (2014), Xiang and Xiao (2014),
Xie, Wen, and Li (2001), Zhang and Gao (2010), Zhang, Zhuang, and
Shi (2015), Zhao, Yin, Li, and Niu (2015) and Zhao, Zhang, Shi, and
Liu (2012) and the references therein. In Zhang and Gao (2010) and
Zhao et al. (2012), the control problems for switched linear systems
in both continuous-time and discrete-time contexts were solved
under average dwell time switching and mode-dependent average dwell time switching, respectively. In Zhang et al. (2015), the

The material in this paper was not presented at any conference. This paper was
recommended for publication in revised form by Associate Editor Changyun Wen
under the direction of Editor Miroslav Krstic.
E-mail addresses: xdzhaohit@gmail.com (X. Zhao), peng.shi@adelaide.edu.au
(P. Shi), zxldwlsj@gmail.com (X. Zheng), lixianzhang@hit.edu.cn (L. Zhang).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.automatica.2015.07.022
0005-1098/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

authors considered H filtering for a class of switched linear discrete systems under their proposed persistent dwell-time switching. The problem of switching stabilization for slowly switched
linear systems with mode-dependent average dwell time was investigated in Zhao et al. (2015) by using invariant subspace theory. Recent advances for switched systems in linear setting can be
found in Briat (2014), Vesely` and Rosinov (2014) and Xiang and
Xiao (2014). In addition, for switched nonlinear systems, some sufficient conditions were derived in Xie et al. (2001) to ensure that
the whole switched nonlinear system is input-to-state stabilizable
(ISS) when each mode is ISS. A concept of generalized matrix measure for nonlinear systems was proposed in Li et al. (2002) to study
the stability of switched nonlinear systems directly.
Note that during the most recent years, the adaptive backstepping-based control problems have been investigated for a class
of switched nonlinear systems (Han, Ge, & Lee, 2009; Long & Zhao,
2015; Ma & Zhao, 2010; Wang, 2014). To list a few, the global
stabilization problem for switched nonlinear systems in lower
triangular form was investigated in both Long and Zhao (2015)
and Ma and Zhao (2010) by using common Lyapunov function
and multiple Lyapunov functions, respectively; Han et al. (2009)
presented an adaptive neural control design for a class of switched
nonlinear systems with uncertain switching signals. However, the

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X. Zhao et al. / Automatica 60 (2015) 193200

systems in these studies are of a strict-feedback form which greatly

limits the applicability in practice.
On the other hand, it is well known that stochastic disturbance
frequently exists in engineering applications. The systems subject
to the stochastic disturbance are usually termed as stochastic
systems that have also been widely probed, with switching
dynamics (Hou, Fu, & Duan, 2013; Wu, Cui, Shi, & Karimi, 2013;
Wu, Yang, & Shi, 2010; Wu, Zheng, & Gao, 2013; Zhang, Wu,
& Xia, 2014) or without (Wu, Xie, & Zhang, 2007; Xie & Duan,
2010; Xie, Duan, & Yu, 2011; Xie, Duan, & Zhao, 2014; Xie & Liu,
2012). To mention a few, the dissipativity-based sliding mode
control was adopted in Wu, Zheng et al. (2013) for switched
stochastic linear systems. Stabilization problems for stochastic
nonlinear systems with Markovian switching were studied in
Wu et al. (2010). By using a novel homogeneous domination
approach, the output feedback stabilization problem was studied
in Xie and Liu (2012) for stochastic high-order nonlinear systems
with time-varying delay. The global stabilization was considered
in Xie et al. (2011) for high-order stochastic nonlinear systems
with stochastic integral input-to-state stability inverse dynamics.
The concept of input-to-state practical stability is extended to
stochastic nonlinear systems in Wu et al. (2007), upon which they
considered the control problem for a class of stochastic nonlinear
systems with unmodeled dynamics by using stochastic small-gain
theorem. However, most of these control strategies require that the
nonlinear stochastic systems are known precisely or the unknown
parameters appear linearly with respect to the known nonlinear
functions. Furthermore, existing results on switched stochastic
systems also suppose that the systems are of a strict-feedback
form. Clearly, these ideal requirements cannot be satisfied in many
practical situations.
Moreover, dead-zone characteristics are encountered in many
physical components of control systems. They are particularly
common in actuators, such as hydraulic servo-valve, electric
servomotors, and biomedical systems. It is well known that a
system will become oscillating, and the regulation quality will
decline if some undesired dead-zone nonlinearities occur in the
system. Thus, it is more realistic and reliable to design controllers
based on the system model where the dead-zone nonlinearities
are taken into consideration. However, up to now, few results
on adaptive control have been developed for switched stochastic
nonlinear systems with dead-zone characteristics.
It is seen from the above observations that it is of both
practical and theoretical significance to investigate the problem
of adaptive tracking control for nonstrict-feedback switched
stochastic systems with actuator dead-zone, which is however
challenging and has not been studied so far. This motivates us
to carry out the present study. In this paper, a new approach
of constructing common virtual control functions is proposed for
the studied system, and a backstepping-based adaptive control
methodology is systematically developed with low computation
burden since the controller only has two parameters need to be
modulated. The contributions of the paper lie in that: (i) our
considered switched system model is of a nonstrict-feedback form;
(ii) the uncertainty can be completely unknown; (iii) the unknown
nonsymmetric actuator dead-zone is taken into account; (iv) the
stochastic disturbance is considered in the switched system model;
and (v) fewer parameters need to be designed which is more
efficient in practice.
Notation Rn denotes the n-dimensional space, R+ is the set of
all nonnegative real numbers. C i stands for a set of functions with
continuous ith partial derivatives. For a given matrix A (or vector v ),
AT (or v T ) denotes its transpose, and Tr {A} denotes its trace when A
is a square. K represents the set of functions: R+ R+ , which are
continuous, strictly increasing and vanishing at zero; K denotes
a set of functions which is of class K and unbounded. In addition,
refers to the Euclidean vector norm.

2. Preliminaries and problem formulation

Consider the following switched stochastic nonlinear system in
nonstrict-feedback form:
dxi = (gi, (t ) xi+1 + fi, (t ) (x))dt + iT, (t ) (x)dw,
1 i n 1,
dxn = (gn, (t ) v (t ) + fn, (t ) (x))dt + nT, (t ) (x)dw,

v (t ) = D (t ) (u (t ) ),
y = x1 ,

(1)

where x = (x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) R is the system state, w is an rdimensional independent standard Brownian motion defined on
the complete probability space ( , F , {Ft }t 0 , P ) with being a
sample space, F a -field, {Ft }t 0 a filtration, P a probability measure, and y is the system output; (t ) : [0, ) M = {1, 2, . . . ,
m} represents the switching signal; v (t ) , u (t ) R are the actuator output and input. For any i = 1, 2, . . . , n and k M , fi,k (x):
Rn R, i,k : Rn Rr are locally Lipschitz unknown nonlinear
functions and gi,k are positive known constants.
The nonsymmetric dead-zone nonlinearity is considered in the
paper, which is defined as the form in Tao and Kokotovi (1994):
T

mrk (uk brk ),

vk = Dk (uk ) = 0,

mlk (uk + blk ),

uk brk
blk < uk < brk
uk blk .

(2)

Here, mrk > 0 and mlk > 0 stand for the right and the left slopes
of the dead-zone characteristic, respectively. brk > 0 and blk > 0
represent the breakpoints of the input nonlinearity. It should be
noticed that, in this paper, mrk , mlk , brk and blk are unknown.
In order to facilitate the analysis and design, it is assumed that
the nonsymmetric dead-zone nonlinearity can be reformulated as:

vk = Dk (uk ) + k ,

(3)

where Dk (uk ) is an unknown smooth function, k is the error

between Dk (uk ) and Dk (uk ) with |k | k .
Moreover, we have

vk = uk + (Dk (uk ) uk + k )
= uk + k (uk ) + k ,

(4)

where k (uk ) = Dk (uk ) uk is an unknown function. The controller

can be designed as
u k = u ck u k .

(5)

Then (4) can be rewritten as

vk = uck + k (uk ) uk + k .

(6)

where uk is the compensator of dead-zone nonlinearity and uck is

a main controller of system (1).
Our control objective is to design state-feedback controllers
such that a given time-varying signal yd (t ) can be tracked by the
output of system (1) under arbitrary switching, while overcoming
the problem of actuator dead-zone. In this paper, we also assume
that the following assumptions hold:
Assumption 1. The tracking target yd (t ) and its time derivatives
(n)
up to nth order yd (t ) are continuous and bounded. Also, it is
assumed that |yd (t )| d, where d > 0 is a constant known a priori.
Assumption 2. There exist strictly increasing smooth functions
i,k (), i,k () : R+ R+ with i,k (0) = i,k (0) = 0 such that
for i = 1, 2, . . . , n and k M,

|fi,k (x)| i,k (x).

i,k (x) i,k (x).

(7)
(8)

X. Zhao et al. / Automatica 60 (2015) 193200

Remark 1. The increasing properties of

i,k (), i,k ()
nimply that if
n
ai , bi 0, for i = 1, 2, . . . , n, then i,k ( i=1 ai )
i=1 i,k (nai ),

n
i,k ( ni=1 bi )
i=1 i,k (nbi ). Notice that i,k (s), i,k (s) are
smooth functions, and i,k (0) = i,k (0) = 0. Therefore, it follows
that there exist smooth functions hi,k (s), i,k (s) such that i,k (s) =
shi,k (s), i,k (s) = si,k (s) which results in

i,k

aj

j=1

i,k

naj hi,k (naj ).

(9)

j =1

bj

j =1

nbj i,k (nbj ).

(10)

j =1

In Sanner and Slotine (1992), it has been proved that the radial
basis function (RBF) neural networks can approximate any continuous real function f (Z ) over a compact set Z Rq . Specifically,
for arbitrary > 0, there exists a neural network W T S (Z ) such that
f (Z ) = W T S (Z ) + (Z ), (Z ) ,

si (Z ) = exp

(Z i ) (Z i )
,
i2
T

3. Main result
In this section a systemic control design and stability analysis
procedure will be presented by using adaptive backstepping
technique (the readers may refer to Krsti and Kokotovi (1995)
and Krsti, Kokotovi, and Kanellakopoulos (1995) for more details
about adaptive backstepping technique). For i = 1, 2, . . . , n 1,
let us define a common virtual control function i as

i =

gi,min

T
[xTi , i , y (di)T ]T with x i = [x1 , x2 , . . . , xi ]T , i = [1 , 2 , . . . , i ]T ,
(i)
(i)
y d = [yd , y d , . . . , yd ]T . The z-system can be obtained as follows:

dzi = (gi,k xi+1 + fi,k Li1 )dt

2
V
V
1
T V
LV =
+
f (x, t ) + Tr h
h .
t
x
2
x2

(13)

Definition 2. The trajectory {x(t ), t 0} of switched stochastic

system (1) is said to be semi-globally uniformly ultimately
bounded (SGUUB) in pth moment, if for any compact subset
Rn and all x(t0 ) = x0 , there exist a constant > 0 and a time
constant T = T (, x0 ) such that E (|x(t )|p ) < , for all t > t0 + T . In
particular, when p = 2, it is usually called SGUUB in mean square.
2 ,1

Lemma 1 (Krsti & Hua, 1998). Suppose that there exist a C

function V (x, t ) : Rn R+ R+ , two constants c1 > 0 and c2 > 0,
class K functions 1 and 2 such that

with = 0.2785.

n,k

dw,

1in1

n 1

n1

xj

T
j,k

dw,

(16)

where the differential operator L is defined in Definition 1, then

Li1 is given by:

Li1 =

i 1
i1
i1
(fs,k + gs,k xs+1 )
+

xs

s =1

i 1

i1

(s)

yd

s=0

(s+1)

yd

i1
1 2 i1

2 p,q=1 xp xq

pT,k q,k .

(17)

Consider the following common stochastic Lyapunov function

candidate
V =

4
i =1

zi4 +

1
2r1

2 +

1
2r2

2 ,

(18)

where r1 , r2 > 0 are design parameters; = , =

with and will be specified later; and represent the estimation of and respectively.
Lemma 3. From the coordinate transformations zi = xi i1 , i =
1, 2, . . . , n, 0 = yd , the following inequality holds

|zi | i (zi , ) + d,

c2
c1

t > t0 .

(19)

[(i + 43 )+ 2a12 zi2 SiT Si ]+ 1, for i = 1, 2, . . . ,

i

Proof. From Assumption 1 and (15), one gets

|xi |

i=1

(14)

1
gi,min

n 1, and n = 1.

Lemma 2 (Polycarpou & Ioannou, 1996). For any R and > 0,

the following inequality holds:

j,k

dzn = (gn,k vk + fn,k Ln1 )dt

where i (zi , ) =

for all x Rn and t > t0 . Then, there is an unique strong solution of

system (1) for each x0 Rn , which satisfies

xj

j =0

i =1

1 (|x|) V (x, t ) 2 (|x|)

LV c1 V (x, t ) + c2

i,k

i1

i1

j =0

(12)

(15)

2ai

where i , ai > 0 are design parameters, gi,min = min{gi,k : k

M }, zi represents the new state after the coordinate transformation: zi = xi i1 , 0 = yd . is an unknown constant that will
be specified later. Si = Si (Xi ) is the basis function vector. Xi =

Definition 1. Consider the stochastic system dx = f (x, t )dt +

h(x, t )dw . For any given V (x, t ) C 2,1 , define the differential operator L as follows:

0 | | tanh

where i = [i1 , i2 , . . . , iq ]T is the center vector, and i is the

width of the Gaussian function.

E [V (x, t )] V (x0 , t0 )ec1 t +

3
1 3 T

i +
zi
z

S
S
i i ,
2 i

(11)

where Z Z Rq , W = [w1 , w2 , . . . , wl ]T is the ideal constant

weight vector, and S (Z ) = [s1 (Z ), s2 (Z ), . . . , sl (Z )]T is the basis
function vector, with l > 1 being the number of the neural network nodes and si (Z ) being chosen as Gaussian functions, i.e., for
i = 1, 2, . . . , l

195

(|zi | + |i1 |)

i=1

n 1

1
i=1

gi,min

|zi | + yd

i=1

3
1 2 T

i +
+ 2 zi Si Si |zi |
4

2ai

|zi | i (zi , ) + d.

i=1

The proof of Lemma 3 is completed here.

196

X. Zhao et al. / Automatica 60 (2015) 193200

By using Definition 1, (16) and (17), LV can be given by

LV =

n 1

zi3

fi,k + gi,k xi+1

i1

i1

i =1

+ i2 (n + 1)2 nzi4
8

(s+1)

y
(s) d

yd

s=0

i1 i1

(fs,k + gs,k xs+1 )
xs

s=1

i1
1 2 i1 T

p,k q,k
2 p,q=1 xp xq
2

i 1

3 2
i1

j,k
+ zi i,k

2

x
j
j=0

n 1

n1 (s+1)
+ zn3 fn,k + gn,k vk
y
(s) d
s=0 yd
xs

s =1

1 2 n1

2 p,q=1 xp xq

pT,k q,k

r1

(s+1)

s =0

s =1

1
r2

n 1

i1
i1
n

2 i1 T
p,k q,k (i 1)
zl4 s4,k (zl , )
2 p,q=1 xp xq
s=1 l=1
2
i1
i1 2

1
i1
2
6
+ (n + 1) nzi
8
xs xj
s=1 j=1

i1
i 1 2
3
i1 2

+ (n + 1) zi
x x s,k ((n + 1)d),
2
s
j
s=1 j=1
1

LV

4
i=1

zi3

fi,k

xs

s =1

3
4

nzi4

fs,k (x)

= zi3

(i1,s ) 3 +

i
n

(20)

+
i1,s fs,k (x)

4
l

= 0, and i1,s is defined as i1,s =

i1,i = 1.

l =1

i1
n

i2 (n + 1)2 nzi4 +

(21)
h4s,k

((n + 1)|zl |l (zl , )),

i1
,
xs

zl4 i4,k (zl , ) +

zl4 i4,k (zl , )

zl4 j4,k (zl , )

i1

i1 4
xj

j =1

0
xs

zi3

1
r1

xj

i 1

i1
s =0

i 1

i1
s=1

zl4 j4,k (zl , )

i 1

i1 4
j=1

i=1

j =1 l =1

2 4
zi

l2ij

j=1

+ i (n + 1)

s = 1, 2, . . . , i 1,

i1
n

l=1

2
i1

zi2 i,k
j,k

x
j
j =0
i2 (n + 1)2 nzi4 +

2 4
+ i2 (n + 1)2 zi4 l
ii i,k ((n + 1)d) +

2 i1
xs xj

2

i1

(n + 1) zi3 s2,k ((n + 1)d)

2
xs xj

Then, the following inequality can be obtained

n
i 1
i 1

zl4 s4,k (zl , )

(n + 1) (zl , )
4

(n + 1)2 nzi6

+ i2 (n + 1)2 nzi4

s=1

where (zl , ) =

i 1
i 1
n

j =1 l =1

s =1 l =1

1
4

s=1

i=1 s=1 j=1

i1,s s,k ((n + 1)d),

+ zi3
4
s ,k

zl4 s4,k (zl , )

i=1 s=1 l=1

i=1 s=1 j=1

s =1

s=1

s=1

i=1

n
i
n

(i1,s ) 3 +

i=1 s=1 l=1

n
i 1
n

+
(i 1)zl4 s4,k (zl , )

zi3 gi,k xi+1 + zn3 gn,k vk .

nzi4

n
i

z
i1,s s,k ((n + 1)d)
+
i

i =1

i 1

i1

(23)

where s4,k (zl , ) = 12 (n + 1)4 l4 (zl , )s4,k ((n + 1)|zl |l (zl , )), s =
1, 2, . . . , i 1.
Substituting (21)(23) into (20) gives

By using Assumption 2 and Lemma 3, one has

(22)

zi3

gs,k xs+1

xs

2 4
l
ij j,k ((n + 1)d),

xj

j =1

i1 1 i1 T

p,k q,k

2 p,q=1 xp xq

2

i 1
1

i1
3 2

j,k
+ zi i,k
r1
2

x
j
j=0
i1

2 4
zi

i=1

i 1

i1

yd
y(ds)

l2ij

where lij is a positive constant, and x0 = 0 since 0 = yd , and

j

zn2

i 1

i1

2
n 1

n1
1

n,k
+
n,k

2
xj
r2
j =0

n
i 1

i1
fs,k
=
zi3 fi,k

xs
i =1
s =1
3

i 1

i1 4

+ i (n + 1)

n1

(fs,k + gs,k xs+1 )

n 1

j =1

n 1

n1

xj

j =1

2 4
+ i2 (n + 1)2 zi4 l
ii i,k ((n + 1)d) +

i 1

i1

i1 4

xs

1
r2

(s)

yd

gs,k xs+1

(s+1)

yd

n 1

2 4
l
ij j,k ((n

+ 1)d)

i1

zi3 gi,k xi+1 + zn3 gn,k vk

i =1

(24)

X. Zhao et al. / Automatica 60 (2015) 193200

Define Ui,k as

By using neural networks approximation ability and Youngs

inequality, the following inequalities can be obtained.

Ui,k =

197

|i1,s |s,k ((n + 1)d)

zi3 fi,k = zi3 WiT,k Si,k + zi3 i,k

s=1

i1
i1 2

i1 2
1

+ (n + 1)
x x s,k ((n + 1)d).
2
s

s=1 j=1

(25)

By using Lemma 2 one has

2ai
1

zi6 i SiT Si
2a2i

(26)

zi3 gi,k xi+1 =

n1

i=1

zi3 gi,k zi+1 +

i =1

gi,k zi3 i ,

(27)

zl4 s4,k (zl , ) =

i=1 s=1 l=1

zi4

i =1

n1

LV

(n s + 1) s4,k (zi , ),

i =1

zl4 j4,k (zl , ) =

i=1 j=1 l=1

s=1

3
4

nzi

j =1

s=1 j=1

(n + 1)2 nzi3

+ i2 (n + 1)2 zi
8

i =

2 i1
xs xj
4

i1

i1

+ i (n + 1)

i1

i1

gi,min

u ck =

2 4
zi l
ii i,k ((n

(s+1)

y
(s) d

yd

+ Ui,k tanh

zi3 Ui,k

i,k

u k =

i1
i1
i1

gs,k xs+1

xs

s=1

+ gi,k zi+1 ,

(fi,k + gi,k i ) +

zn3 fn,k

+ gi,k i +

zn3

zn3 n

zn3 ST S
2a2

u k

2a2i + 3zi4 + i

+ gn,k

1
r1

SnT Sn
2a2n
a2
2

+ gn,k uck
+

3
4

zn4

n
i

2
+
i +
lij ,
i=1

(32)

j =1

3
1 3 T

i +
zi
z

S
S
i i ,
2 i
4

(34)

gn,k

3
1 3 T

n +
zn
z Sn Sn ,
2 n
4

1
r2

i=1

3
gn,max 3 T
+
zn +
zn S S ,
2
4

r1
zi6 SiT Si 1 ,
2
2a
i,min
i=1
gn,max r2 6 T

zn S S 2 .
=
2a2,min

(37)
(38)

Then, one can get from (32)(38) that

LV

i,k +

j =1

l2ij

(36)

2a gn,k

(uck + k uk + k )

(35)

2an

4
i zi

4
zn

+ gn,k

(29)

1
r1

2
r2

i=1

a2
2

i=1

(33)

2ai

=
(28)

zn3 gn,k

i =1

r1

(31)

with n , , an , a > 0 being the design parameters, gn,max = max

{gn,k , k M }, gn,min = min{gn,k , k M }, and the estimation of
. The adaptive laws can be designed as

with zn+1 = 0.
Substituting (6) and (26)(28) into (24) yields

where

+ 1)d)

i 1

9
i1 4
+ i2 (n + 1)2 nzi
8
xj
j =1
2

u k = u ck u k ,

j =1

LV

3zn4 + 4

2 4
l
ij j,k ((n + 1)d)

xj

j =1

zi3

where =
i=1 i is the estimation of , and i > 0 is a design
parameter.
The true actuator input is given as

9
+ zi
(n j + 1) j4,k (zi , ) + i2 (n + 1)2 nzi

n 1

r2

s=0

a2

where i = max{i,k , k M }.
Design the virtual control function as

s=1

(30)

s=1

i1
i 1

n1

+ zi
(n s)(i 1) s4,k (zi , )

i=1

i
n

4
(i1,s ) 3 + zi
(n s + 1) s4,k (zi , )
s=1

SiT Si
2a2i

For any i = 1, 2, . . . , n and k M, define fi,k as

fi,k =

z6 ST S +
2 n

zi3 i

zn3 gn,k

zi4
(n j + 1) j4,k (zi , ).

i=1

zi3

: k M }, i,k i , ,k + k .

i=1

s=1

s =1 l =1

i4

= max{,k

n
i 1
n
n
n1

(i 1)
zl4 s4,k (zl , ) =
zi4
(n s)(i 1) s4,k (zi , ),
i=1

Substituting (30) and (31) into (29) gives

i=1

and
n
i
n

2
2
where i,k = Wi,k , ,k = W,k , i = max{i,k : k M },

i4,k

+ zi4 +

2a

It can be noticed in (24) that

n 1

a2i

+ zn4 +

T
3
zn3 (k + k ) = zn3 W,
k S,k + zn (,k + k )

3
3
z Ui,k z 3 Ui,k tanh zi Ui,k + i,k .
i
i
i,k
n1

a2i

z 6 Wi,k SiT,k Si,k +

2 i

i +

4
i

j =1

n 2

a
i

i=1

i4

l2ij

(39)

198

X. Zhao et al. / Automatica 60 (2015) 193200

It is true that
1

The ship maneuvering system can be described by the following

Norrbin nonlinear model (Lim & Forsythe, 1983).

) 2 + 2 ,
= (
1

(40)

)
2 + 2 .
= (

(41)

2
2
Combining (39) with (40) and (41) gives
n

i +

i=1

i=1
l2ij

j =1

1, 0 < vs vL
(vs ) = 2, vL < vs vM
3, vM < vs vT
vL , vM , vT represent the value of low speed, medium speed and

2r1

2 2
2r2

p0 V + q0 ,

(42)

where n := n + , p0 = min{4i , 1 , 2 : 1 i n}, q0 =

n
i 2 1 2 2 2
a2
a2i
i4
+ gn,k ( 2 +
i=1 ( 2 + 4 ) +
i=1 i +
j=1 lij + 2r + 2r

). By using Lemma 1, we have

dE [V (t )]

p0 E [V (t )] + q0 ,
dt
Then, the following inequality holds

0 E [V (t )] V (0)ep0 t +

q0
p0

(43)

(44)

z 2 (0)

j
0)2 . Eq. (44) means
where V (0) =
+ 2r11 (0)2 + 2r12 (
j =1
4
that all the signals in the closed-loop system are bounded in
probability. It follows from (44) that

E [|zi |4 ]

4q0
p0

t .

(45)

Now, we are ready to present our main result in the following

theorem.
Theorem 1. Consider the closed-loop system (1) with unknown nonsymmetric actuator dead-zone (2). Suppose that for 1 i n, k
M, the unknown functions fi,k can be approximated by neural networks in the sense that the approximation error i,k are bounded. Under the state feedback controller (34) and the adaptive laws (37), (38),
the following statements hold:
(i) All the signals of the closed-loop z-system (16) under arbitrary
switching are SGUUB in 4th moment and

lim

E [|zi | ]

4q0

i=1

p0

denotes the yaw rate,

where T (vs ) is the time constant, h =
stands for the heading angle, (vs ) is Norrbin coefficient, K (vs )
represents the rudder gain, is the rudder angle and w stands
for an r-dimensional independent standard Brownian motion,
(vs ) (, h, ) : R3 R3r is an unknown function, and (vs )
is the switching signal which satisfies:

1 2
2 2
i zi4

2r
2r
1
2
i=1

n 2

a2
4
4
ai
+ g n ,k
+
+ i
+

LV

T (vs ) h + h + (vs ) h3 = K (vs ) + T (vs ) (, h, )w,

= 1.

top speed, respectively.

A simplified mathematical model of the rudder system can be
described as follows:
TE , (vs ) + = KE , (vs ) E , (vs ) ,
where TE , (vs ) represents the rudder time constant, stands for the
actual rudder angle, KE , (vs ) denotes the rudder control gain and
E , (vs ) is the rudder order.
Let x1 = , x2 = h, x3 = , v (vs ) = E , (vs ) , we have the
following switched nonlinear system model with actuator deadzone to describe the dynamic behavior of the ship with low speed,
medium speed and high speed respectively.
dx1 = x2 dt ,
dx2 = (f (vs ) + b (vs ) x3 )dt + T (vs ) d,

1
KE , (t )
dx3 =
x3 +
v (vs ) dt ,
TE , (vs )
TE , (vs )

v (vs ) = D(u (vs ) )

where f (vs ) = T

1
(vs )

x2

(vs ) 3
x
T (vs ) 2

, b (vs ) =

K (vs )
.
T (vs )

The vessel data comes from a ship which has a length overall
of 160.9 m. vL = 3.7m/s, K1 = 32 s1 , T1 = 30 s, 1 =
40 s2 , TE ,1 = 4 s, KE ,1 = 2; vM = 7.5 m/s, K2 = 11.4 s1 , T2 =
63.69 s, 2 = 30 s2 , TE ,2 = 2.5 s, KE ,2 = 1; vT = 15.3 m/s, K3 =
5.1 s1 , T3 = 80.47 s, 3 = 25 s2 , TE ,3 = 1 s, KE ,3 = 0.72;
The initial conditions are x1 (0) = 2, x2 (0) = 0.05, x3 (0) =
0) = 1. We construct the basis function
0.03, (0) = 10, (
vectors S1 , S2 , S3 and S using 11, 15, 21 and 48 nodes, the centers
1 , 2 , 3 , evenly spaced on [1.5, 4.5][3, 4][10, 8],
[5, 4] [30, 20] [0.5, 5.5], [5.5, 8] [12, 25]
[0.1, 2] and [10, 2][60, 2][0.2, 10.5], the widths 1 =
1.2, 2 = 2.2, 3 = 2, = 1.8. The design parameters are a1 =
a2 = a3 = a = 10, r1 = 2, r2 = 10, 1 = 0.5, 2 = 0.1, 1 =
2 = 3 = 5, = 3. The desired trajectory is yd = 10 sin 0.08t.

According to Theorem 1, the adaptive laws , and the control

laws uck , uk are chosen, respectively, as

(ii) The output y of the closed-loop system (1) under arbitrary switching can be almost surely regulated to a small neighborhood of the
target signal.

Proof. It is not difficult to complete the proof by the above

derivations. 

= 0.036z36 ST S 0.1,

Remark 2. From (37) and (38), one can see that there are only
two adaptive parameters that need to be modulated in our results.
Hence, the problem of over parameterization can be avoided by our
approach, and the computation burden can be greatly reduced.

u ck =

0.01zi6 SiT Si 0.5 ,

i =1

1
g3,k

[5.75z3 0.005z33 S3T S3 ],

uk = 3.75z3 +

0.00057
g3,k

z33 ST S ,

4. An illustrative example

where uk = uck uk , z1 = x1 yd , z2 = x2 1 , z3 = x3 2
and 1 , 2 are given by

In this section, the simulation studies for a ship maneuvering

system are used to illustrate the effectiveness of our results.

1 = 5.75z1 0.005z13 S1T S1 ,

2 = 92z2 0.08z23 S2T S2 .

X. Zhao et al. / Automatica 60 (2015) 193200

Fig. 1. Tracking performance.

Fig. 3. The responses of D(uck uk ) and D(uck ).

Fig. 4. The response of switching signal.

Fig. 2. The responses of adaptive laws.

In order to give the simulation results, we assume that

10(uk 50),

vk = D(uk ) = 0,

20(uk + 60),

uk 50
60 < uk < 50
uk 60

and 1 = 0.5x1 sin x2 x3 , 2 = 0.25x21 x2 cos x2 , 3 = 0.1x1 x3 . The

simulation results are shown in Figs. 14, where Fig. 1 presents the
system output and target signal yd , Fig. 2 shows the trajectories
of adaptive laws, Fig. 3 demonstrates the responses of D(uck )
(without dead-zone compensation controller) and D(uck uk )
(with dead-zone compensation controller), and Fig. 4 illustrates
the evolution of switching signal. From Fig. 1, it can be seen
that the output can track the target signal yd within a small
bounded error. On the other hand, Fig. 3 verifies that the dead-zone
nonlinearity can be compensated by uk .
5. Conclusions
This paper has investigated the tracking control problem for
a class of switched stochastic nonlinear systems in nonstrictfeedback form under arbitrary switchings, where the unknown
nonsymmetric actuator dead-zone is taken into account. Adaptive
state feedback controllers are designed for the considered systems.
It is shown that the target signal can be almost surely tracked by
the system output within a small bounded error, and the tracking
error is SGUUB in 4th moment. In our future works, we will pay
attention to the control problems of more complicated systems
such as high-order switched stochastic systems by using efficient
adaptive algorithms.

199

Acknowledgments
This work was partially supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (61203123, 61322301, 61403041), the
Australian Research Council (DP140102180, LP140100471), the
111 Project (B12018), the Liaoning Excellent Talents in University
(LR2014035), the Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang
Province (F201417, JC2015015), and the Fundamental Research
Funds for the Central Universities, China (HIT.BRETIII.201211,
HIT.BRETIV.201306).
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Xudong Zhao was born in Harbin, China, on July. 7. 1982.

He received the B.S. degree in Automation from Harbin
Institute of Technology in 2005 and the Ph.D. degree from
Control Science and Engineering from Space Control and
Inertial Technology Center, Harbin Institute of Technology
in 2010. Dr. Zhao was a lecturer and an associate
professor at the China University of Petroleum, China.
Since 2013, he joined Bohai University, China, where he
is currently a professor. He is also a Postdoctoral Fellow
in The University of Hong Kong from January 2014. Dr.
Zhao serves as associate editor for Neurocomputing and

International Journal of General Systems, and reviewer for various peer-reviewed

journals, including Automatica and IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control. In
addition, he has been granted as the outstanding reviewer for Automatica, IET
Control Theory & Applications and Journal of the Franklin Institute. His research
interests include hybrid systems, positive systems, multi-agent systems, fuzzy
systems, Hinf control, filtering and their applications. His works have been widely
published in international journals and conferences.
Peng Shi (M95-SM98-F15) received the B.Sc. degree
in Mathematics from Harbin Institute of Technology,
China; the M.E. degree in Systems Engineering from
Harbin Engineering University, China; the Ph.D. degree in
Electrical Engineering from the University of Newcastle,
Australia; the Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from the
University of South Australia; and the D.Sc. degree from
the University of Glamorgan, UK.
Dr. Shi was a post-doctorate and lecturer at the
University of South Australia; a senior scientist in the
Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Australia;
and a professor at the University of Glamorgan, UK. Now, he is currently a
professor at The University of Adelaide, and Victoria University, Australia. His
research interests include system and control theory, computational intelligence,
and operational research; and he has published widely in these areas.
Dr. Shi has actively served in the editorial board of a number of journals,
including Automatica, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control; IEEE Transactions
on Fuzzy Systems; IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics; IEEE Transactions on Circuits
and Systems-I; and IEEE Access. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical
and Electronic Engineers, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and the
Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. He is a Member of College of Expert,
Australian Research Council, and was the Chair of Chapter on Control and Aerospace
Electronic Systems at the IEEE South Australia Section.
Xiaolong Zheng was born in Hubei Province, China on
October 8, 1990. He received the B.S. degree in automation
from Yangtze University College of Technology and
Engineering, Jingzhou, China, in 2013. He is studying for
the M.S. degree in control theory and control engineering
in Bohai University, Jinzhou, China. His research interests
include adaptive control, switched nonlinear systems,
intelligent control, stochastic nonlinear systems and their
applications.

Lixian Zhang received the Ph.D. degree in control science and engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology,
China, in 2006. From Jan. 2007 to Sep. 2008, he worked as
a postdoctoral fellow in the Dept. Mechanical Engineering at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada. He was
a visiting professor at Process Systems Engineering Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) during
Feb. 2012 to March 2013. Since Jan. 2009, he has been with
the Harbin Institute of Technology, China, where he is currently a Professor in the Research Institute of Intelligent
Control and Systems.
Dr. Zhangs research interests include nondeterministic and stochastic switched
systems, networked control systems, model predictive control and their applications. He serves as Associated Editor for various peer-reviewed journals including
IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, etc., and
was a leading Guest Editor for the Special Section of Advances in Theories and Industrial Applications of Networked Control Systems in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics.