A robust adaptive nonlinear control design (Q1915011)

The authors describe a robust adaptive control design for a class of nonlinear systems with uncertainty. The uncertainty in the class of systems they consider is due to both parametric uncertainty and unknown nonlinear functions. These unknown functions could arise from modeling errors, external disturbances, time variations in the system, or a combination of these. The authors' main assumption is that these unknown functions satisfy a ``triangular bounds'' condition which is similar to the pure feedback condition of earlier studies. Specifically, the unknown functions are assumed to satisfy some growth conditions characterized by bounding functions composed of known functions multiplied by unknown parameters. The authors' formulation expands the class of nonlinear systems for which global adaptive stabilization methods can be used. The overall adaptive scheme is shown to guarantee global uniform ultimate boundedness.