Decentralized event‐triggered output feedback adaptive neural network control for a class of MIMO uncertain strict‐feedback nonlinear systems with input saturation

Summary For a class of multiple‐input multiple‐output large‐scale nonlinear systems in strict‐feedback form with input saturation, external disturbances and immeasurable states, an adaptive decentralized neural network (NN) control strategy on the basis of event triggered mechanism is investigated in this article. In contrast to the literature, the proposed method is centered on the control‐error as a replacement to the tracking‐error that leads to a simplified derivation approach of adaptive laws. Furthermore, the control gains for this class of systems are considered unknown nonlinear functions and not assumed as simple unity or known gains as always done in the literature. Moreover, the challenge of losing controllability that typically arises in state transformation‐based methods, as reported in the literature, is entirely resolved in our approach. Last and not least, all restrictions imposed on unmatched interconnections are eliminated along with avoiding the complexity explosion caused by recursive back‐stepping designs. For this end, the unknown ideal control laws are approximated using NNs, while additional control terms are added to handle saturation effects, unknown interactions, and approximation errors. Additionally, fuzzy inference systems are employed to estimate unknown control errors. Due to the strictly positive real property, the tracking errors are proved to belong to a small compact set using Lyapunov theory. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.