Research ArticleRecurrent fuzzy neural network backstepping control for the prescribed output tracking performance of nonlinear dynamic systems

•Designing backstepping controller for a prescribed performance control.•Defining an error constrained variable to guarantee the prescribed error bound.•Considering RFNNs to approximate unknown and differential terms.•Simulation and experiment for the efficacy of the proposed control scheme.

This paper proposes a backstepping control system that uses a tracking error constraint and recurrent fuzzy neural networks (RFNNs) to achieve a prescribed tracking performance for a strict-feedback nonlinear dynamic system. A new constraint variable was defined to generate the virtual control that forces the tracking error to fall within prescribed boundaries. An adaptive RFNN was also used to obtain the required improvement on the approximation performances in order to avoid calculating the explosive number of terms generated by the recursive steps of traditional backstepping control. The boundedness and convergence of the closed-loop system was confirmed based on the Lyapunov stability theory. The prescribed performance of the proposed control scheme was validated by using it to control the prescribed error of a nonlinear system and a robot manipulator.