IET Science, Measurement & Technology

Research Article

ISSN 1751-8822
Free chattering hybrid sliding mode control for Received on 9th March 2016
Revised on 15th May 2016
a class of non-linear systems: electric vehicles Accepted on 16th June 2016
doi: 10.1049/iet-smt.2016.0091
as a case study www.ietdl.org

Mohammad Hassan Khooban 1, 2 ✉, Taher Niknam 1, Frede Blaabjerg 2, Moslem Dehghani 1

1
Department of Electrical Engineering, Shiraz University of Technology, Shiraz, Iran
2
Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg DK-9220, Denmark
✉ E-mail: mhkhoban@gmail.com

Abstract: In current study, in order to find the control of general uncertain nonlinear systems, a new optimal hybrid control
approach called Optimal General Type II Fuzzy Sliding Mode (OGT2FSM) is presented. In order to estimate unknown
nonlinear activities in monitoring dynamic uncertainties, the benefits of general type-2 fuzzy logic systems (GT2FLS) is
utilized by the suggested controller. The suggested controller not only warranties the constancy and hardiness against
uncertainties of the lumped resulted by external disturbances and un-modeled dynamics, but also considerably
decreases the control chattering inherent in traditional sliding mode control. Moreover, the Modified Backtracking
Search Algorithm (MBSA), which is a new heuristic algorithm, is used in the offered controller. A comparison is
performed between the results of current study and the results of some of the most recent studies on the same topic,
which are an Adaptive Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Logic Controller (AGT2FLC) and Conventional Sliding Mode Controller
(CSMC), to assess the efficiency of the suggested controller. The suggested control scheme is finally used to the
Electric Vehicles type as a case study. Results of simulation confirm the good performance the suggested controller.

1 Introduction control, a combination of the fuzzy logic and the sliding

Nowadays, electric vehicles (EVs) are increasingly advancing
because of the importance of environmental protection and lack of
energy sources. EVs have several merits, including smooth
operation, quiet emission, and high efficiency. Moreover, they play
an important role in the advancement of fuel economy, satisfying
the tightened emission standards [1, 2]. Recently, the power
motive force system of EVs has been an issue of high concern in
the automobile industry and university research studies [3]. The
power supply, drive train, motor, charger and controller are the
most significant parts of an EV system [3–5]. The controller plays
a principal role in the EV to determine a high-performance EV
with an optimal balance of travelling range per charge, maximum
speed and acceleration performance. The control of EVs should be
designed robustly and adaptively to improve the system in both
dynamic and steady performance states, because EV systems are
basically time-variant (e.g. the operation parameters of an EV and
the road condition are consistently varying) making the control of
an EV quite cumbersome. The fact that EVs are
‘energy-management’ machines makes their control special [1]. At
the present, the short running distance per battery charge limits
EVs’ usage. Therefore, alongside controlling the performance of
EVs, managing the energy of EV batteries is a significant issue. In
the theory of control, significant developments have been made in
non-linear control methods which have received great attention
over the last three decades [1, 2].
The development and expansion of non-linear control systems
have recently aroused interest among both industrial and academic
communities because of the intensive non-linearity often observed
for plants and systems in the modern industry [6, 7]. Therefore,
the theorem of sliding mode control (SMC) has been given much
attention by researchers. This intensive interest in the sliding-mode
control is attributable, on the one hand, to its advantages in having
a simple structure and in being robust against the parameter
uncertainties and external disruptions and on the other hand to the
possibility for its stability to be analysed and proved through
the Lyapunov stability theorem. In this regard, there are a large
number of studies reporting the use of the fuzzy sliding-mode
mode method, to achieve a better performance for the control
systems [8, 9].
General type-2 fuzzy sets and systems have recently been of
interest to many scientists because of their ability to model and
cope with disturbances and dynamic uncertainties [10–16]. After
the introduction of type-2 fuzzy sets in 1975 by Zadeh [17] to
extend type-1 fuzzy sets (T1FSs), due to their simplicity, these
systems have been widely applied in various engineering fields.
Among these systems, interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FSs) have
been particularly attractive and shown a better efficiency as
compared with type-1 fuzzy logic systems (T1FLSs) in the face of
different uncertainties such as rule uncertainties, dynamic
uncertainties, noises and exterior disturbances. In a fuzzy logic
system (FLS), uncertain data is usually available for constructing
the rules. In contrast to IT2FS and T1FS, general type-2 fuzzy sets
(GT2FSs) can successfully manage rule uncertainties. However,
given the high computational complexity of GT2FSs and systems,
the studies available in this respect report only the application of
interval type-2 FLSs (IT2FLSs) [18–21]. Nevertheless, Liu [10,
22] has proposed an efficient procedure for calculating centroid
and type decrease of general type-2 FLS (GT2FLS) by applying a
very recently introduced a−plane representation theorem.
The structure of the SMC, a robust non-linear feedback control
method, is unintentionally altered to obtain the desired efficiency
[23–25]. In designing SMC, it is supposed that the infinitely fast
switching control from one structure to another is possible.
However, attaining high-rate switching control is impossible
particularly due to the limitations in calculating switching delay
and the restriction of the physical actuators in managing the
control signal switching at an infinite speed. This defective
switching of control between structures causes the trajectory to
chatter instead of sliding along the sliding surface. The chattering
phenomenon is basically countered in two ways, in the first way
by applying higher-order sliding mode scheme [6, 26, 27], and
then by providing a boundary layer around the sliding surface and
utilising a continuous control within it [28–30]. The second way is
the most common in decreasing chattering where the boundary
width is normally fixed, and the larger width causes the smoother

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& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016 1
control signal. The system state is not driven to the origin even if the
design of the boundary decreases the chattering phenomenon and the
steady-state error is observed in the system. This means that a larger
boundary layer width causes a larger steady-state error.
In order to increase the performance of SMC, FLSs have been
applied to them in several recent studies. Therefore, there are two
types of SMCs. The first one is the so-called fuzzy sliding mode
control (FSMC) [31–33], a fuzzy adaptive SMC algorithm in
which unfamiliar system dynamics are specified by FLS to
produce the equivalent control for SMC. The second one is the
sliding mode fuzzy logic control (SMFC) [34–38], which is a
fuzzy logic controller (FLC) based on the SMC or the sliding mode.
In FSMC, in order to achieve the continuous part of SMC
controller, FLS is applied for estimating the unknown non-linear
dynamics, and according to Lyapunov stability theory, it is proved
that the closed-loop system is a steady system. Thus, the adaptive
law is realised directly, which supports the tunes factors of the
fuzzy set, i.e. the rule-based functions. Temeltas [29] proposed a
class of FSMC for non-linear systems based on a special type of
fuzzy reasoning principle. In addition, the FSMC controller was
proposed based on linearisation of feedback [30], and this
technique was then investigated for multi-input multi-output
non-linear systems [39, 40]. Other studies conducted in this area
have been addressed in [36–38]. Moreover, there are a large
number of reports containing several indirect or direct adaptive
fuzzy controls [37–39, 41] and some practicable applications [42]
for SMFC. Palm [43] first proposed a sliding mode fuzzy control,
based on the premise that primarily an SMC is obtained and then
the fuzzy controller is fabricated so as to have two equivalent
controllers. Subsequently, according to this main idea, researchers
proposed the sliding-like fuzzy logic control [40, 41]. In these
approaches, the fuzzy controller corresponds to the pre-designed
sliding mode controller and the width of boundary layer can be
self-tuned online after presenting suitable adaptive laws, wherefore
the controller is without chattering [40, 41]. Nonetheless, in some
studies [39–41], the approaches are suggested to be appropriate
only for systems using second-order dynamics. In addition, a
slight chattering is observed in input control by converging the
dead zone factor to zero. The suggested optimal general type-2
FSMC is obtained by combining type-II FLC (T2FLC) and SMC
[21, 42], and can also dramatically decrease the number of rules
by the advantages inherited from these two techniques. In [4, 5,
44–46], all the advances of non-linear control and estimation are
presented.
On the basis of the discussion provided thus far, this study offers a
new ideal general type-2 fuzzy sliding mode control, which is a simple
method without any of the difficulties mentioned for the previous
methods. A new modified backtracking search algorithm (MBSA) is
used to simultaneously optimise the factors of input and output
membership functions (MFs) for the general type-2 controller’s
coefficients. This technique can be used for non-linear systems of
order n. Moreover, mathematical methods are used to verify the
globally asymptotic stability for the closed-loop system. This
control technique is finally applied to a kind of EVs as a case study.
Results of the simulation show the superiority of the suggested
controller, as compared with two previously proposed controllers,
namely CSMC [25] and adaptive GT2FLC (AGT2FLC) [3].
2 Problem statement
The single-input single-output non-linear system is discussed in this
study. It is assumed that the system can be described as the following
[23]
X (t) = f (X (t), t) + g(X (t), t)u(t) + d(t)
(n)
(1)
y(t) = x(t)
where X (t) = [x(t), ẋ(t), . . . , x(n) (t)]T indicates the nth order state
vector of the system, y(t) [ R indicates the system output,
f (X (t), t) and g(X (t), t) are not exactly identified, but smooth
2 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016
functions, u(t) [ R refers to the input of the control and d(t) [ R
refers to an exterior disturbance.
The tracking problem of (1) is performed in order to provide an
appropriate control law to permit the states to track a preferred
trajectory xd (t).
If e(t) = x(t) − xd (t) is the tracking error whose forward shifted
values are obtained from e(i) = x(i) (t) − x(i) d (t) (i = 1, 2, . . . ,
n − 1), then the vector of the error is defined as e(t) = [e(t),
ė(t), . . . , e(n−1) (t)].
The subsequent assumptions are essential for designing the input
of the control:
(i) The system states X (t) can be determined.
(ii) The degree of the imprecision on f (X (t), t) is upper-bounded
by a specified continuous function of X (t).
(iii) g(X (t), t) is lower and upper limited, e.g. 0 , g , g(X (t), t) , g
where g and g are positive constants.


(iv) d(t) is unknown, but it is limited, i.e.
d(t)
, D, where the ‘D’
is an unknown positive constant.
3 General type-2 fuzzy control
The following equation is used to characterise a GT2FS in a
universal set X

à = mà (x)/x (2)
x[X

mà (x) = (fx (u))/u, Jx [ [0, 1] (3)
u[Jx
where mà (x) and fx (u) are named a secondary MF and secondary
grade, respectively; Jx represents the domain of the secondary MF
that is known as primary membership and u refers to the fuzzy set
mentioned in [0, 1]. Fig. 1 demonstrates a GT2FS in which the
upper and the lower MFs as well as their-secondary MF are
triangular. If fx (u) = 1, IT2FS is achieved, which provides
evidence for the existence of a uniform uncertainty in the primary
MF explained by its lower mà (x) and upper m à (x) MFs.
Owing to their computational simplicity, particularly with respect
to type reduction, the IT2FSs are increasingly used in place of
GT2FSs [16–18, 42]. However, a novel representation technique
for GT2FSs, which is effective for both computational and
theoretical tasks, was recently presented by Liu [10, 22]. It is
named an α-plane for type-2 fuzzy sets (T2FSs) because of its
similarity to the a−cut for T1FSs. An α-plane representation for a
GT2FS Ã, represented by Ãa , is the union of all primary MFs with
secondary grades more than or equivalent to the special α value

Ãa = mÃa (x)/x (4)
x[X

mÃa (x) = (fx (u) ≥ a)/u, Jx [ [0, 1] (5)
u[Jx
Then a GT2FS Ã according to the theorem of the α-plane
representation can be stated as the following equation
à = U a/Ãa (6)
a[[0,1]
This representation is so beneficial, since a/Ãa , can be observed as
an IT2FS with the secondary grade of level α. Accordingly, a GT2FS
can be divided into a number of IT2FSs with a particular level of α
for each, where a = {0, 1/K, . . . , (K − 1)/K, 1}. In other words,
by applying this novel representation a GT2FLS can be observed
as a too large collection of IT2FLSs, having one IT2FLS for each
value of α; however, Liu [10] proved that the accuracy needed for
centroid computation can be achieved by utilising only 5–10
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Fig. 1 GT2FS with triangular upper and lower MFs where the secondary MF is triangular

α-planes. Fig. 2 shows a novel architecture of a general type-2 fuzzy the jth rule with level of α, and * denotes the product t-norm. Since the
system based on the α-plane representation. inference engine output is a T2FS, before defuzzificating with a type
In general, a GT2FLS is a collection of fuzzifiers; a fuzzy inference reducer, it must be converted into a T1FS. Five different types of
engine; a fuzzy rule base; a defuzzifier and a type reducer. The fuzzifier reducers based on calculating the centroid of an IT2FSare explained
maps real values into fuzzy sets. In the present research, the singleton in [22]. Owing to its uniformly secondary grade, the output of
fuzzifier whose output is a single point of a unity membership grade is IT2FLS type reduction is measured by using its left-end point yl and
used to simplify the study. The fuzzy rule base includes fuzzy right-end point yr. In the study of Mendel and John [47], two
IF-THEN rules constructed based on the experts’ knowledge. The jth algorithms, which are now known as the KM iterative algorithms,
rule in the GT2FLS can be stated as follows were presented for computing these two end points.
Amongst different type reducers, centre of sets (COS) is
j j j j extensively applied because of its easy calculation through the KM
Rj : if x1 , x2 and xn are F̃ 1 , F̃ 2 , F̃ n then y is G̃
(7) iterative algorithm [24]. If singleton fuzzifier is used in this study,
j = 1, 2, . . . , M the product of the inference engine and COS type reducer, as well
as the left- and right-end points for each part of GT2FLS based on
where xi (i = 1, 2, . . . , n) and y refer to the input and output of the the α-representation theorem can be demonstrated as follows
j j
GT2FLS, respectively; F̃ i and G̃ are general type-2 antecedent and L M
j j j
j=1 f a ula + j=L+1 f−a ula
j
the resultant sets, respectively. The inference engine synthesises rules
and provides a mapping from input GT2FSs to output GT2FSs. yla = L j M j
= uTla jla (11)
Since, the α-plane representation is used for the fuzzy set in this j=1 f a + j=L+1 f−a
study, the firing set of each related IT2FS is as represented below
where ujla represents the left-end point of the jth consequent set with
= f j (X )]
Faj (X ) [f−j a (X ), jjla = [ f ja /Dla , f a /Dla ],
j
a (8) level of α, ula = [u1la , . . . , uM T
la ] ,
L j M
f−j a (X ) = mF̃ j ∗ mF̃ j ∗ . . . ∗ mF̃ j (9) Dla = j=1 f a + j=L+1 f−j a and jla = [j1la , . . . , jlM a
]T .
1a 2a na Moreover
f j (X ) = m
 F̃ j ∗ m
 F̃ j ∗ . . . ∗ m
 F̃ j (10) R M
a j j
j=1 f a ura + j=R+1 f a ura
1a 2a 1a
j j
yra = R M = uTra jra (12)
f j (X )
j
+ j
where f−j a (X ) and are, respectively, the lower and upper MFs of j=1 f a j=R+1 f a
a

Fig. 2 Architecture for a GT2FLS

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where urja represents the right-end point of the jth consequent set shown as
with level of α, ura = [u1ra , . . . , uM j
ra ] , jra = [ f a /Dra , f a /Dra ],
T j j
⎡ ⎤
R M X1,1 · · · X1,j · · · X1,D
Dra = j=1 f−a + j=R+1 fa and jra = [jra , . . . , jra ] . In the
j j 1 M T
⎢ .
⎢ .. .. .. .. .. ⎥
meantime, R and L can be obtained by applying KM iterative ⎢ . . . . ⎥ ⎥
algorithm for each individual IT2FLS of level α. All these ⎢ · · · Xi,j · · · Xi,D ⎥
X = ⎢ Xi,1 ⎥ (14)
achieved intervals are then combined into a T1FS similar to Fig. 3 ⎢ ⎥
⎢ .. .. .. .. .. ⎥
and a crisp output can be finally achieved with the defuzzification ⎣ . . . . . ⎦
of centroid being as follows: XN ,1 · · · XN,j · · · XN ,D

  Each array Xi,j is randomly generated by the uniform distribution U,

a a(yla + yra ) a a(yla + yra )
UFuzzy = y =  = , as represented below
2 aa K +1 (13)

a = {0, 1/K, . . . , (K − 1)/K, 1}
where K + 1 indicates the number of the α-planes; in other words, it
shows the number of individual IT2FLSs.
4 Modified backtracking search algorithm
In [48], the development of a novel backtracking search algorithm
(BSA) as an evolutionary optimisation (EO) technique is reported
based on the updating procedure of differential evolution (DE) and
genetic algorithm (GA). The application of basic principles of
BSA to mathematical optimisation starts with randomly generating
an initial population as well as other EOs. Each individual of the
initial set is evaluated by using an objective function. It benefits
from a random mutation method which uses only the one direction
individual in place of multiple ones, as it is the case with the DE
algorithm. Furthermore, a non-uniform crossover process is
applied along with the BSA, which is more complex than the
Xi,j = Xmin ,j + Ui,j (.) Xmax ,j − Xmin ,j (15)
where Xj,min and Xj,max represent the lower and upper limits of the jth
member of dimension of the problem. The Ui,j (.) refers to the random
function generator in the range of [0, 1] from the uniform probability
distribution function for the jth member of the ith agent.
4.1.1 First modification: In this study, chaotic opposition-based
learning is offered to speed up the convergence rate and improve the
final solution quality of the algorithm. If the random initialisation is
close to the optimum solution, a better improvement is then expected
for the convergence characteristics. In this learning scheme, in order
to generate the initial population, the chaotic systems and the
opposition-based learning method are combined. The population is
divided into two groups. Initialisation of the first one is performed
according the chaotic theory and the next one is provided based on
the opposition-based learning. Here, a chaotic number is generated
by using a sinusoidal-based chaotic operator as follows
GA’s crossover. In the crossover stage, the variables of the two  
chosen individuals are combined and in the mutation stage, the Ci,j,k+1 = sin pCi,j,k , k = 1, . . . , kmax
novel solutions are produced randomly to diversify the search (16)
space of the solution and allow the BSA to ultimately escape from Ci,j,1 = Ui,j (.)
the locally ideal solutions. Moreover, two novel selection
approaches are well-defined and applied with BSA. Accordingly,
where k shows the iteration counter of sinusoidal iterator and kmax
the BSA can be divided into the subsequent three stages. It should
represents the maximum iteration number of chaotic mechanism.
be mentioned that the suggested modification approaches are
Consequently, the first group (N1 = N/2) is created as follows
described during the BSA procedure for the sake of explicitness.

4.1 Initialisation
Primarily the N number of individuals is created randomly and
located at random positions on the search space. Here, the N is the
D factors involved in the fuzzy controller. The individual location
is characterised as an initial vector of length N and D as the
dimension of the problem. The original position vector can be
Fig. 3 Output of each individual IT2FLSs
4 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016
Xi,jC = Xmin ,j + Ci,j,kmax (.) Xmax ,j − Xmin ,j i = 1, . . . , N1 (17)
where Xi,jC represents the jth variable for the ith individual which is
primarily produced by the chaotic system. The initialisation of the
rest of the population is performed as follows [49]
Xi,jO = Xmin ,j + Xmax ,j − Xi,j (18)
where Xi,jO indicates the jth variable for the ith individual which is
primarily produced by the opposition-based learning method.
4.2 Selection I
The BSA utilises the X old vector for updating the historical
population at the beginning of each iteration. Initialisation of this
vector is performed in the same way as the X and its updating is
then achieved through the following ‘If-Then’ rule [48]
If U1 (.) , U2 (.) then X old := X (19)
where : = is an operation applied to the updating process of X old.
This means that the BSA has a memory in which the unchanged
population of the earlier generation is remained until it is altered.
Having determined the current X old, in order to modify the order
of individuals in the X old in the present iteration, the subsequent
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procedure is applied The value of d is adjusted to vary with the iteration number and is
formulated as follows
X old = X old (randperm(N )) (20)


d = eln(itermax ) 1−(1−(iter/itermax ))
0.5
(27)
where randperm(N) refers to a random shuffling function and
chooses the index from N randomly.
where itermax represents the maximum iteration numbers of the
MBSA.
4.3 Mutation, crossover and selection II
Modification rule 2
A mutation occurs following the selection-I procedure embodiment

in the BSA. Accordingly, the experimental solutions are produced X i,mod2 = X i,new + Ui (.) X m,new − X i,new (28)
as follows [48]:

 where X i,mod2 is the experimental solution generated for the ith
X trial = X + (F · M ) · X old − X (21) individual using the modification rule 2. The m refers to the
random individual index selected from the population.
where F is a factor, which controls the amplitude of the search Modification rule 3
direction vector X old − X and is considered to be 3 × rndn in
which rndn ∼ N(0, 1) (N refers to the standard normal probability X i,mod3 = X i,new + Ui (.)(Best − Mean) (29)
distribution function). Furthermore, M applied for the crossover
goal, is the binary integer-valued vector of size N × D that is
generated as follows: where X i,mod3 represents the experimental solution generated for the
ith individual via the modification rule 3. The Mean is the average
value of the present population generated as follows
 
Mean = me1 · · · mej · · · meD (30)


N
Xi,j,new
mej = (31)
i=1
N

Modification rule 1 develops both the global and local search

where capacities, while modification rule 2 enhances only the local
search capacities and modification rule 3 increases only global
Q1 = u(1:ceil(U (.)) · D)) search capacities. The selection of modification rules depends on
(23) the following normalised probability model
u = randperm(D)

Q2 = randi(D) (24) Probr

Probr = (32)
Prob1 + b2 + Prob3
With ceil(S) as a function which rounds S toward the upper integer.
Random integers are also produced from a uniform discrete acr
distribution through the randi. Probr = 0.85Probr + 0.15 (33)
10
It is significant to note that the experimental solutions having
better fitness values are substituted with the same place of wii
population X in the next BSA iteration. acr = acr + ii = 1, . . . , Nr (34)
Nr
4.3.1 Second modification: A novel self-adaptive learning
log(N − i + 1)
approach is proposed after embodying the chaotic wi = i = 1, . . . , N (35)
opposition-based learning process, and this proposed approach is log(1) + · · · + log( N )
used for the original BSA to differentiate the problem search
space. According to the learning experience, a self-adaptive where Nr refers to the number of population which determines the
learning guides the decision making for the modification rules. To modification rule r.
extend the exploration and exploiting area in the scheme, three
modification rules are expressed as the following are adopted: The roulette wheel mechanism is then employed based on
normalised probability (32) for selecting the rth modification rule
Modification rule 1 of each individual.
In general, the heuristic algorithm, similar to MBSA, only needs

X i,new + y(Best − Worst) if y . 0 to check the cost function for its search guidance without requiring
X i,mod1 =  (25) extra information about the system. Therefore, the mean absolute
X i,new + y Worst − X i,new otherwise error (MAE) is considered in this paper as the following [50, 51]

where X i,mod1 is the experimental solution generated via the

modification rule 1 for the ith individual. The Best and Worst are 1 N





e(i)
+
u(i)

MAE = E(k) = (36)
the current best and worst solutions, respectively. The υ is N i=1
expressed by the following formula
   where e(i) refers to the trajectory error for the ith sample of the
1 −f2 /2d 2 5f object, N indicates the number of the samples, i represents the
y = √ e cos (26)
2 d iteration number and u(i) is the control signal. The update is
performed on all factors involved in the Optimal General Type-2
where f refers to a random number in the range of [−2.5d, 2.5d]. Fuzzy Sliding Mode Control (OGT2FSMC) at every final time (tf ).

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5 System model in state space and selection of the asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system. The time
sliding surface derivative of s(e, t) is given as follows [21]
 
n−1  
In order to have the system explained by (1) in the state space defined d d  n − 1 k (n−k−1)
in our earlier study [21] ṡ(t) = (s(e, t)) = le
dt dt k=0 k
x(t) = x1 (t), ẋ(t) = x2 (t), . . . , x(n−1) (t) = xn (t) (37) = f (x(t), t) + g(x(t), t)u + d(t) − x(n)
d
n−1 
 
n − 1 k (n−k)
Replacing new variables in (1) results in + le (45)
k=0 k
ẋ1 (t) = x2 (t)
Combining (45) with (44) results in the following equation [21]
ẋ2 (t) = x3 (t)
 
.. (38) n−1 
 
. n−1
f (x(t), t) + g(x(t), t)u + d(t) − x(n)
d + lk e(n−k) sign(s)
ẋn (t) = f (X (t), t) + g(X (t), t)u(t) + d(t) k=0
k
y(t) = xi (t), i = 1, 2, . . . , n ≤ −1
(46)
The subsequent error equations will be obtained, if the non-linear
system equations are transferred to the state-space domain: Consequently, the sliding control input is designed in its general
form as the following
x1 (t) − x1d (t) = e1 (t),
(39) 1 
x2 (t) − x2d (t) = e2 (t), . . . , xn (t) − xnd (t) = en (t) u= G(û − k(x, t)sign(s)) − fˆ (47)
ĝ

n−1  
xid (t) in the previous equations refers to the (i−1)th derivative of the
favourite path which should be followed by the input control. The  n − 1 k (n−k)
û = x(n)
d − le (48)
following equations can be concluded from (37) and (39) k=0
k

ė1 (t) = e2 (t), ė2 (t) = e3 (t), . . . , ėn−1 (t) = en (t) (40) where fˆ , ĝ refer to approximating functions of f and g, respectively.
The limits are specified as the following
Now, the sliding surface is defined as follows
0 ≺ amin ≤ g ĝ−1 ≤ amax (49)

n−1
s(e, t) = le
k (n−k−1)
(41)
k=0 Selecting the gain G as

where l is a fixed positive parameter. Now, an appropriate design of G = (amin amax )1/2 (50)
control u is proposed so that the sliding surface tends to zero.
Consequently, the subsequent Lyapunov candidate function is It remains to provide k(x, t) so that the convergence condition (44)
presented is satisfied. Now by substituting (49) and (48) for (46), we have
(see (51))
1
V = s2 (42)
2 where there is an adequate condition for the control law to fulfil the
sliding surface s = 0 [21]
The Lyapunov candidate function derivative is
k(x, t) ≥a(D + R + 1) + (a − 1)U
1 ds2  1/2
V̇ = ≤ −1|s| (43) a (52)
2 dt a = max
amin
which results in the following convergence condition

sṡ ≤ −1|s| ⇒ ṡsign(s) ≤ −1 (44)

If ɛ > 0, (43) demonstrates that the system converges to the sliding
surface. The trajectory of the state, despite the presence of
matched parametric uncertainties and disturbances in the system,
slides into the origin e = 0 as it has reached the sliding surface s = 0.
Then, the first stage is to choose appropriately the parameter l.
The next stage is to find the control law to maintain the system
in the sliding mode. Equation (44) states an adequate condition for
6 Controller design
In this section, a design is provided for the control action u(t) so that
the output can track a preferred path. In addition, the tracking error
and all its derivatives will tend to zero. The control action is
described based on (48), (47) and (13) as follows [21]
u = ĝ−1 Gû − ĝ−1 fˆ − ĝ −1 GuFuzzy (s) (53)

 
n−1  
g ˆ
 (n) n − 1 k (n−k)
f (x(t), t) + G(û − k(x, t)sign(s)) − f + d(t) − xd + le sign(s) ≤ −1
ĝ k=0 k
  (51)
(f − g ĝ−1 fˆ ) + gĝ −1 Gû − û − g ĝ−1 k(x, t)sign(s) + d sign(s) ≤ 1
 
Df + (gĝ−1 G − 1)û + d sign(s) − gĝ−1 Gk(x, t) ≤ 1

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6 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016
Fig. 4 General scheme of the suggested controller

6.1 Stability of the suggested controller Table 1 EV system’s parameters

We adopt the Lyapunov function similar to (42) to analyse the Symbol and abbreviation Values
stability of the closed-loop system. With the convergence
Ra + Rf 0.2 Ω
condition (44), we obtain [21] (see (54)) La + Lf 6.008 mH
re 0.25 m
Equation (54) can be modified as follows J 0.05 kg m2
Laf 1.776 mH
  j 0°
Df + (1 − a−1 )û − a−1 uFuzzy(s) + d sign(s) ≤ −1 (55) ωnom 2800 r/min
m 800kg
To reach asymptotic stability as when s > 0, we consider A 1.8 m2
ρ 1.25 kg/m3
Cd 0.3
a−1 uFuzzy (s) ≥ (Df + d + 1) + (1 − a−1 )û (56) μrr 0.015
G 11
which implies that B 0.0002 N ms
I 78 A
uFuzzy |max ≥ a(R + D + 1) + (a − 1)U (57) V 0–48 V

When s < 0

a−1 uFuzzy (s) ≤ (Df + d + 1) + (1 − a−1 )û (58)

which implies that [21]

uFuzzy |max ≤ a(R + D + 1) + (a − 1)U (59)

If s is positive (negative), uFuzzy (s) is also positive (negative).

Therefore, (54) implies V̇ ≺ 0 which completes the stability proof
of the OGT2FSMC. The general scheme of the suggested
controller is demonstrated in Fig. 4.

7 Advantages of the proposed method
In designing the proposed method, considerations have been made
that have a prominent role in its practical implementation:
(i) The proposed novel optimal robust control approach is easy to
implement and can be applied to a reasonably wide class of
non-linear systems.
(ii) In case the boundary limits of the uncertainty are not available,
the control designers have to increase the number of rules in fuzzy
type-1. Consequently, the amount of the computational burden of
the fuzzy type-1 controller will increase. As a direct result, high
computation effort will make delay in the control process and thus
will cause instability in the closed-loop system. In the proposed
controller, however, GT2FLS was employed to design the fuzzy
controller. In order to adjust the input and output MFs of the
Fig. 5 General type-2 fuzzy MFs using the α-plane representation with α =
0 (light area) and α = 1 (dark area)
proposed fuzzy controller, the MBSA algorithm was used. It was
shown in the literature that in comparison to some algorithms,
such as GA, ant colony and so on, the MBSA algorithm requires
less computational effort to converge.
(iii) The proposed method is free of undesirable chattering
phenomena. Moreover, it can handle both structured and
unstructured uncertainties.
(iv) Another benefit of the proposed control approach is its light
burden of computations which is an important feature in practical
implementation and online control cases.
(v) As indicated before, T1FLSs are unable to directly handle rule
uncertainties, since their MFs are T1FSs; however, the GT2FLSs
involved in this paper, have the capability to handle rule

 
  n−1 
 
−1 −1 ˆ −1 (n) n − 1 k (n−k)
f + g ĝ Gû − ĝ f − ĝ GuFuzzy (s) + d(t) − xd + le sign(s) ≤ −1 (54)
k=0
k

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& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016 7
Fig. 6 Federal Test Procedure (FTP-75)
uncertainties. Moreover, in tuning the MF of the fuzzy logic, it is
very important to provide an optimal and accurate performance.
There are several approaches toward the MF adjustment such as
trial and error and the online regulating MF method, which use a
complementary optimisation algorithm.
8 Simulation results
Simulation of the suggested controller was performed by using
MATLAB software. For this purpose, a personal computer Core 2
Due, 2.8 GHz, 4 Gbytes RAM, under Windows 7 was used. The
efficiency of the OGT2FSM controller was investigated by
applying the suggested method to the non-linear EVs as a case
study and the obtained results were compared with those obtained
from CSMC [25] and AGT2FLC, which are two controllers
recently presented in the literature in this respect [3]. It is worth
noting that both the identical values and computational effort were
employed to make the comparison quite fair.
Designing the electrical vehicles control should be performed
adaptively and robustly to improve the performance of the system
in both dynamic and steady states, as EV systems are essentially
time-variant (e.g. the operation factors of EV and the condition of
the road are always variable), thus making the control of an EV
essentially difficult [1, 52, 53].
8.1 Non-linear model of the EVs
The overall dynamic model for the EV system can be given as
follows [1, 53]
 
di 1
= + {V − (Ra + Rf ), i − Laf · i · v}
dt L + Lfield
 a 
other systems. Non-linear control methods should be used for
designing an EV controller. The sensitivity of the model-based
controller to the parameter uncertainties is too high. The changing
operation conditions change several parameters and as a result
their accurate design is impossible. For example, the resistance of
a motor armature winding would change by changing the
operation temperature. Therefore, the robustness of the controller
is an important factor to be considered in its design. A non-linear
robust and ideal controller [53, 54] will be investigated in the
following section. For designing a nonlinear controller, the model
in (60) should be modified
Ẋ = f (x) + g(x)u
(61)
y = h(x)
where (see equation at the bottom of the page)
Table 1 shows the of the case study parameters which have been
applied in the current research [53, 55].
Now, OGT2FSMC is applied to the plant (61). The MFs for α = 0
and α = 1 are shown in Fig. 5. Consequently, nine rules are needed to
construct the controller [47].
At this stage, the Federal Test Procedure (FTP-75) is applied to
investigate the performance. The profile of FTP-75 is shown in
Fig. 6. Fig. 7a demonstrates the obtained results (the maximum
speed is scaled to 90 km/h), the system speed deviation using
CSMC, AGT2FLC and OGT2FSMC.
In order to show the performance of the suggested technique more
effectively, the control and error signals for each controller are given
in Figs. 7b and c, respectively. These figures demonstrate the
superiority of the suggested controller, OGT2FSMC, in terms of
performance and accuracy compared with other controllers.
dv 1  r
= 2 × Laf · i − Bv −
2


dt J + m r/G G 9 Conclusion

× (mrr mg + (1/2)rACd v2 + mg sin w) (60) The present research proposed a novel OGT2FSM controller for a
class of non-linear systems in the presence of exterior
The EV operates from zero to full rate in contrast to the application of disturbances and uncertainties. A case study was conducted to

 
i x
X= = 1
v x2
⎡     ⎤
1
× −(Ra + Rf ) · x1 − Laf · x1 · x2
⎢ L + Lfield ⎥
⎢ " ⎥
f (x) = ⎢   ! a
     ⎥
⎣ 1 r r 2 2 ⎦
2 × Laf · x1 − Bx2 −
2
× mrr mg + (1/2)rACd x2 + mg sin w
J + m r/G G G
⎡ ⎤
1
g(x) = ⎣ La + Lfield ⎦
0
and y = h(x) = x2

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8 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016
Fig. 7 Performance of the suggested technique more effectively, the control and error signals for each controller
a Performance of suggested controllers to track FTP-75 speed test
b Error signal of suggested controllers to track FTP-75 speed test
c Control signal of suggested controllers to track FTP-75 speed test

IET Sci. Meas. Technol., pp. 1–10

& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016 9
prove the ability of this method for non-linear EV systems. In
order to achieve the maximum performance, the novel MBSA
was successfully employed to evolve the controller factors as
well as the factors of input and output MFs. The new
technique was so simple and involved no chattering. The
mathematical analyses proved the global asymptotic stability of
the closed-loop system along with the suggested control system.
For better demonstration of the suggested control system, a
comparison was made between the obtained results and the
results of CSMC and AGT2FLC, which are the most recent
studies in this area.
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& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016