Practical Finite-Time Command-Filtered Adaptive Backstepping With Its Applications to Quadrotor Hovers

In this article, a practical finite-time command-filtered adaptive backstepping (PFTCFAB) control method is presented for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with nonparametric unknown nonlinearities and external disturbances. Unlike PFTCFAB control techniques that use neural networks (NNs) or fuzzy-logic systems (FLSs) to deal with system uncertainties, the proposed method is capable of handling such uncertainties without the need for NNs or FLSs, thus reducing complexity and increasing reliability. In the proposed approach, novel function adaptive laws are designed to directly estimate unknown nonparametric nonlinearities and external disturbances by means of command filter techniques, and a type of practical finite-time command filters is proposed to obtain such laws. Moreover, the PFTCFAB controllers and finite-time command filters are designed with practical finite-time Lyapunov stability, which ensures finite-time stability of system tracking and filter estimation errors. Experimental results with a quadrotor hover system are presented and discussed to demonstrate the advantages and effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.