Sliding Mode Control is a valuable control methodology capable of dealing with relevant classes of uncertain nonlinear systems. Yet, in its classical formulation, Sliding Mode Control had some limitations: the possibility of designing sliding mode controllers only in case of systems with relative-degree-one input-output map, the notorious chattering phenomenon, and the impossibility of explicitly considering the presence of state and input constraints in the design of the controller. In this talk, after a brief review of the basic concepts of Sliding Mode Control theory, advanced Sliding Mode Control approaches will be presented. They include Higher Order Sliding Mode Control strategies for nonlinear uncertain systems with arbitrary relative degree subject to input and state constraints.

Antonella Ferrara received the M.Sc. degree (Cum Laude and printing honours) in electronic engineering and the Ph.D. degree in computer science and electronics from the University of Genoa, Italy, in 1987 and 1992, respectively. Since 2005, she has been Full Professor of automatic control at the University of Pavia, Italy.

Her research activities lie in the area of nonlinear control, with a special emphasis on sliding mode control and application to road traffic, automotive systems, robotics and power systems. She is author and co-author of more than 450 publications including more than 160 journal papers, 2 monographs and one edited book. She was Associate Editor and Senior Editor of many scientific journals. Since 2018 she has been Associated Editor of Automatica, and, since January 2022, Senior Editor of IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems.

Antonella Ferrara is the EUCA Conference Editorial Board Chair, Director of Operations of the IEEE Control Systems Society, Vice-Chair for industry of IFAC TC 2.3, member of the IFAC Industry Board and of the IFAC Conference Board.

She was/is Principal Investigator in numerous European, international, and national projects. In particular, she was PI in the European Project ITEAM (Interdisciplinary Training Network in Multi-Actuated Ground Vehicles, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action), 2016-2019.

Among several awards, she was a co-recipient of the 2020 IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology Outstanding Paper Award. She is a Fellow of IEEE and Fellow of IFAC.