Practical Stability of Observer-Based Control for Nonlinear Caputo–Hadamard Fractional-Order Systems

Abstract

This paper investigates the problem of observer-based control for a class of nonlinear systems described by the Caputo–Hadamard fractional-order derivative. Given the growing interest in fractional-order systems for their ability to capture complex dynamics, ensuring their practical stability remains a significant challenge. We propose a novel concept of practical stability tailored to nonlinear Hadamard fractional-order systems, which guarantees that the system solutions converge to a small ball containing the origin, thereby enhancing their robustness against perturbations. Furthermore, we introduce a practical observer design that extends the classical observer framework to fractional-order systems under an enhanced One-Sided Lipschitz (OSL) condition. This extended OSL condition ensures the convergence of the proposed practical observer, even in the presence of significant nonlinearities and disturbances. Notably, the novelty of our approach lies in the extension of both the practical observer and the stability criteria, which are innovative even in the integer-order case. Theoretical results are substantiated through numerical examples, demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed method in real-world control applications. Our contributions pave the way for the development of robust observers in fractional-order systems, with potential applications across various engineering domains.