Second-order sliding modes control for in-vehicle pedal robots

In this contribution a second-order sliding modes based control design approach for setpoint tracking of an in-vehicle pedal robot's position is introduced. For this purpose a novel concept of in-vehicle pedal robots is considered, which is based on a PM-DC drive with rope winch and an optical distance sensor. In the control design task the distance between a brake, clutch or accelerator pedal and the ground of the driver's cab should follow a given reference value. Nonlinear simulation results show the efficiency and the robustness properties of the proposed second-order sliding modes control design approach.