Super-Twisting-Algorithm-Based Terminal Sliding Mode Control for a Bioreactor System

This study proposes a class of super-twisting-algorithm-based (STA-based) terminal sliding mode control (TSMC) for a bioreactor system with second-order type dynamics. TSMC not only can retain the advantages of conventional sliding mode control (CSMC), including easy implementation, robustness to disturbances, and fast response, but also can make the system states converge to the equivalent point in a finite amount of time after the system states intersect the sliding surface. The chattering phenomena in TSMC will originally exist on the sliding surface after the system states achieve the sliding surface and before the system states reach the equivalent point. However, by using the super twisting algorithm (STA), the chattering phenomena can be obviously reduced. The proposed method is also compared with two other methods: (1) CSMC without STA and (2) TSMC without STA. Finally, the control schemes are applied to the control of a bioreactor system to illustrate the effectiveness and applicability. Simulation results show that it can achieve better performance by using the proposed method.