Self-Evolving Neural Control for a Class of Nonlinear Discrete-Time Dynamic Systems With Unknown Dynamics and Unknown Disturbances

In this article, a novel self-evolving general regression neural network (SEGRNN) is designed for tracking control of a class of discrete-time dynamic systems with unknown dynamics and unknown external disturbances. The proposed controller starts from scratch and automatically adjusts its structure and parameters online to solve the tracking control problem. The proposed controller can add, prune, and replace nodes online according to the control task, external disturbance, and the design specifications. A robustifying control term is also added to SEGRNN's output to mitigate the effects of the external disturbance. The concept of a data reservoir is proposed where a record of the deleted nodes is stored for any future recall, if they are seen to be significant again. Unlike most of the previously proposed self-evolving systems, our controller offers user-friendly design parameters to suit a variety of real-world systems. Lyapunov stability analysis is utilized to study the stability of the suggested controller and to determine an appropriate learning rate for the SEGRNN weights. A continuous stirred-tank reactor simulation example is employed to verify the performance of the proposed controller. The performance of the proposed controller is also compared with a variety of controllers, including adaptive radial basis functional networks, adaptive feed-forward neural networks, adaptive fuzzy logic system, proportional integral derivative controller, sliding-mode controller, and iterative learning controller. Finally, a dc motor platform is used to experimentally validate the controller performance.