Is It Reasonable to Substitute Discontinuous SMC by Continuous HOSMC?

Abstract: Professor Utkin in his discussion paper proposed an example showing that the amplitude of chattering caused by the presence of parasitic dynamics in systems governed by First-Order Sliding-Mode Control (FOSMC) is lower than the obtained using Super-Twisting Algorithm (STA). This example served to motivate this research reconsidering the problem of comparison of chattering magnitude in systems governed by FOSMC that produces a discontinuous control signal and by STA that produces a continuous one, using Harmonic Balance (HB) methodology. With this aim the Averaged Power (AP) criteria for chattering measurements is revisited. The STA gains are redesigned to minimize amplitude or AP of oscillations predicted by HB. The comparison of the chattering produced by FOSMC and STA with redesigned gains is analyzed taking into account their amplitudes, frequencies and values of AP allowing to conclude that: (a) for any value of upperbound of disturbance and Actuator Time Constant (ATC) there exist a bounded disturbance for which the amplitude and AP of chattering produced by FOSMC is lower than the caused by STA; (b) if the upperbound of disturbance and upperbound of time-derivative disturbance are given, then for all sufficiently small values of ATC the amplitude of chattering and AP produced by STA will be smaller than the caused by FOSMC; (c) critical values of ATC are predicted by HB for which the parameters, amplitude of chattering and AP, produced by FOSMC and STA are the same. Also the frequency of self-exited oscillations caused by FOSMC is always grater than the produced by STA.