A Study on Sliding Mode State Estimation

Sliding Observers were suggested in the previous literature as an alternative and interesting technique for state estimation for uncertain nonlinear systems. Even though previous results guaranteed robust convergence properties, some of the underlining assumptions were verified to be too conservative for some application. This study explores the properties of a specialized sliding observer for uncertain nonlinear systems described in the phase variable canonical form with absolutely bounded uncertainties. Transient analysis associated with Lyapunov-like stability theory for switched systems were used to develop a design methodology that proved to be less conservative than the previous design techniques. The resulting sliding observer design technique was illustrated using two numerical examples.