Control of high-order nonlinear systems under error-to-actuator based event-triggered framework

This paper solves the finite-time tracking problem of a class of high-order nonlinear systems under event-triggered input. Unlike existing event-triggered frameworks based on signal transmission channels from the sensor to the controller or from the controller to the actuator, these developed trigger mechanisms only compare the difference between the signal to be transmitted and the holding signal. By introducing internal trigger conditions and external trigger conditions, a novel error-to-actuator based event-triggered framework is proposed. It further considers the response of the trigger mechanism to system control performance such that the tracking performance of the system can be guaranteed while reducing the number of signal transmissions. In addition, filter-based techniques (such as the dynamic surface control method), for the first time, are utilised to eliminate some strong constraints that exist in the literature for most high-order nonlinear systems. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is evaluated on simulation examples including comparative studies and a practical example.