Switched Second-Order Sliding Mode Control with Partial Information: Theory and Application

This paper proposes a novel switched second order sliding mode (S-SOSM) control strategy in a partial information setting, i.e., when only the sliding variable is accessible for measurements. Such a control approach allows one to deal with systems characterised by different levels of uncertainties associated with different regions of the state space and to accommodate different control objectives in the different regions by switching among appropriate SOSM controllers. The proposed approach is shown to ensure global finite-time convergence to the origin of the closed-loop system trajectory. The braking control of two-wheeled vehicles is considered as a case-study to test the controller performance.