High-gain MFC for trajectory tracking

Abstract We consider trajectory tracking for minimum-phase nonlinear systems in Byrnes-Isidori form using the model-following control (MFC) architecture. The tracking problem is motivated by a hierarchical control concept where a higher-level instance provides the reference trajectory at run-time. We present a computational efficient implementation of the feedback linearisation MFC design, and apply high-gain feedback in the process control loop (PCL) to achieve practical tracking in presence of Lipschitz perturbations. Our main results establish ultimate boundedness of the tracking error and give a constructive bound for the high-gain scaling parameter to achieve arbitrary tracking precision. Further we establish that the peaking phenomenon can be attenuated using MFC. We demonstrate the results via an automotive case study considering advanced engine-based cruise control.