Nonlinear control of a dynamic model of HIV-1

Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) reduces the viral burden in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infected patients. The paper addresses the problem of controlling the predator-prey like model of the interaction among CD4⁺ T-cell, CD8⁺ T-cell, and HIV-1 by an external drug agency. By exploring the dynamic properties of the system, the original system is first regrouped into two subsystems, then a nonlinear global controller is presented by designing two controllers over two complementary zones: a local controller on a finite region and a global controller over its complement. The local controller is designed to guarantee nonnegativity, and avoids the problem of control singularity within the neighborhood of the origin Ω. The complementary controller is designed via backstepping for both subsystems over the complementary region. The closed-loop system is globally stable at nominal values through the introduction of a novel bridging virtual control, and the resulting controller is singularity free and guarantees nonnegativity. In this paper, simulations are conducted in discrete-time with sampling time T_s to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.