Observer‐Based Finite‐Time Preview Control of Nonlinear Discrete‐Time Systems

ABSTRACT This study addresses issues of finite‐time control for a class of discrete‐time nonlinear systems with previewable reference signals via observer‐based control. An observer‐based tracking controller with preview actions was designed to realize enhanced finite‐time tracking performance when considering unavailable state variables. First, an equivalent model, that is, the augmented error system, was constructed via the error system approach in preview control theory. This transformed the finite‐time preview tracking control problem into a finite‐time stability problem. Subsequently, novel finite‐time stabilization criteria were obtained for the underlying systems over the complete finite‐time interval. We further designed the observer‐based controller and analyzed two numerical examples to illustrate the effectiveness and merits of the proposed method.