Robust adaptive output feedback control for uncertain nonlinear systems with quantized input

Summary In this paper, we study the input quantization problem for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems. The quantizer adopted belongs to a class of sector-bounded quantizers, which basically include all the currently available static quantizers. Different from the existing results, the quantized input signal, rather than the input signal itself, is used to design the state observers, which guarantees that the state estimation errors will eventually converge to zero. Because the resulting system may be discontinuous and non-smooth, the existence of the solution in the classical sense is not guaranteed. To cope with this problem, we utilize the non-smooth analysis techniques and consider the Filippov solutions. A robust way based on the sector bound property of the quantizers is used to handle the quantization errors such that certain restrictive conditions in the existing results are removed and the problem of output feedback control with input signal quantized by logarithmic (or hysteresis) quantizers is solved for the first time. The designed controller guarantees that all the closed-loop signals are globally bounded and the tracking error exponentially converges towards a small region around zero, which is adjustable. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.