On stability for sampled-data nonlinear ADRC-based control system with application to the ball-beam problem

This paper mainly concerns with the stability analysis of the sampled-data nonlinear active disturbance rejection control (ADRC)-based control system. Firstly, a class of single-input-single-output (SISO) continuous plant is discretized using zero-order-hold (ZOH), and several kinds of digital implementation methods for the nonlinear extended state observer (NLESO) are newly proposed. Then the sampled-data nonlinear ADRC (NLADRC) based closed-loop system is transformed into a discrete-time Lurie-like system, to which linear matrix inequality (LMI)-based sufficient conditions for absolute stability and robust absolute stability are obtained. The sufficient conditions provide convenient and effective methods for determining the stability and its relationship with the parameters of the controller, the plant and the sampling period. Using the ball-beam system as an example, the proposed results are verified in both simulations and experiments.