A Novel Fixed-Time Control Algorithm for Trajectory Tracking Control of Uncertain Magnetic Levitation Systems

In this research, a new robust control method is developed, which achieves a fixed-time convergence, robust stabilization, and high accuracy for trajectory tracking control of uncertain magnetic levitation systems. A hybrid controller is a combination of an adaptive fixed-time disturbance observer and a fixed-time control algorithm. First, to estimate precisely the total uncertain component in fixed-time, an adaptive disturbance observer is constructed. Then, a new robust control method is designed from a proposed fixed-time sliding manifold, disturbance observer’s information, and a continuous fixed-time reaching law. A global fixed-time stability and convergence time boundary of the control system is obtained by Lyapunov criteria in which the settling time can be arbitrarily set using design parameters regardless of the system’s initial state. Finally, the designed control strategy is implemented for a magnetic levitation system and its control performance is compared with other existing finite-time control methods to evaluate outstanding features of the proposed system. Trajectory tracking experiments in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment have been performed to exhibit the effectiveness and practicability of the designed approach.