Adaptive finite-time prescribed performance tracking control for hydraulic servo systems with friction compensation

Hydraulic systems present numerous challenges in the development of high-performance tracking controllers due to their highly nonlinear characteristics and heavy modeling uncertainties. Addressing this issue, this paper presents a friction compensation-based finite-time tracking control strategy with prescribed performance constraints. The system model is first derived, taking into consideration the nonlinear behaviors and potential uncertainties encountered in practical scenarios. Then, an adaptive finite-time prescribed performance controller is synthesized based on the backstepping framework. A novel form of finite-time performance function is introduced to constrain the tracking error, which provides the closed-loop system with a less complex guarantee of finite-time convergence and can also deliver the required transient performance and steady-state accuracy. Additionally, given the impact of uncertainty terms and the difficulty in obtaining the virtual command derivative, we employ neural networks (NNs) to estimate unknown dynamics and introduce command filters to acquire the intermediate signals, simplifying the backstepping control design process. Theoretical analysis indicates that the proposed control strategy can achieve the desired tracking performance and ensure the stability of the entire closed-loop system. Comparative numerical simulations are presented to confirm the usefulness of the suggested approach.