Design of Terminal Sliding-Mode Controllers for Nonlinear Systems with Regional Fixed-Time Stability

This paper extends the use of a recently proposed Terminal Sliding surface to nonlinear plants of arbitrary order. The proposed surface ensures the finite-time robust stabilization of systems of arbitrary order with matched uncertainties. Mathematical characteristics of the proposed surface are such that a fixed bound naturally exists for the settling time of the state variable, once the surface has been reached. A simulation study has been performed using a magnetic levitation system.