This book offers a fresh perspective on variable-structure systems and discontinuous control systems. It treats both complex control theories, having a focus on higher-order sliding modes, and their practical applications in engineering. It details new algorithms: their analysis, methods and useful properties.

This book demonstrates sliding-mode control’s often pivotal role in ensuring robustness, stability and performance under uncertain conditions. It highlights sliding-mode control’s significance for addressing modern control challenges, showcasing applications in—among other fields—robotics, power systems and automotive systems.

Sliding-Mode, Variable-Structure and Discontinuous Control Systems is an exposition of insights from expert authorities in sliding-mode control. Their shared perspectives provide a forward-looking view of the development of variable-structure and sliding-mode control and equip readers, whether academic researchers or practical engineers, with a valuable combination of new and established techniques with detailed examples.

Igor Boiko received M.Sc. degree in electro-mechanical engineering, Ph.D. degree in control systems, and D.Sc. degree in control theory in 1984, 1990, and 2009, respectively. Since 2014, he has been a full professor with department of Electrical Engineering of Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi. He has authored and co-authored over 250 publications, including 4 monographs. His research interests are in the areas of discontinuous control, robotics, sliding mode control, power converter control, process control, frequency-domain methods and PID controller tuning. Dr. Boiko has a substantial industry experience. He worked in the fields of process automation, instrumentation and process control for such companies as Honeywell, Syncrude Canada, Chevron Texaco, SNC Lavalin. He has important technological developments in the control of the Claus (sulfur recovery) process, deployed in a number of sulfur recovery plants, and methods of controller tuning.

Antonella Ferrara received the M.Sc. degree in electronic engineering and the Ph.D. degree in computer science and electronics from the University of Genoa, Italy, in 1987 and 1992, respectively. Since 2005, she has been a full professor of automatic control at the University of Pavia, Italy. She has authored and co-authored over 450 publications, including more than 160 journal papers, 2 monographs, and 1 edited book. Her research primarily focuses on sliding mode control and other nonlinear control methodologies applied to traffic systems, intelligent vehicles, power networks, and robotics. Dr. Ferrara is currently a senior editor of the IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems and an associate editor of Automatica. Previously, she served as a senior editor of the IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles and an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, IEEE Control Systems Magazine.