Smooth sliding control to overcome chattering arising in classical SMC and super-twisting algorithm in the presence of unmodeled dynamics

The earlier smooth sliding control (SSC) is revisited. New global stability and chattering alleviation analysis is presented under the more general situation of simultaneous presence of plant uncertainty, unmodeled dynamics and external disturbance. Based on an appropriate prediction error loop, it delivers a smooth filtered control signal to the plant. New explicit conditions are presented for SSC to eliminate chattering. Considering numerical examples recently used in a lively debate between continuous and discontinuous sliding mode control options, the SSC is shown to overcome chattering arising in both classical first-order sliding mode (FOSM) control and the super-twisting algorithm (STA) in the presence of unmodeled dynamics. Besides the original theoretical contribution, one main purpose here is to stir new research about chattering avoidance in both classical and higher-order sliding mode algorithms for uncertain systems.