Adaptive output-feedback control for nonlinear time-delay systems in pure-feedback form

The main contribution of this paper is to develop an adaptive output-feedback control approach for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with unknown time-varying delays in the pure-feedback form. Both the non-affine nonlinear functions and the unknown time-varying delayed functions related to all state variables are considered. These conditions make the controller design difficult and challenging because the output-feedback controller should be designed using only the output information. In order to overcome these conditions, we design an observer-based adaptive dynamic surface controller where the time-delay effects are compensated by using appropriate Lyapunov–Krasovskii functionals and the function approximation technique using neural networks. A first-order filter is added to the control input to avoid the algebraic loop problem caused by the non-affine structure. It is proved that all the signals in the closed-loop system are semi-globally uniformly bounded and the tracking error converges to an adjustable neighborhood of the origin.