Sliding modecontrol (SMC)is recognized asone of the most efficientcontrolmethodsto reject system perturbations and disturbances. The main technical operationof an SMC is to force thesystem state trajectories onto some predefined sliding mode surfaces (e.g., linear sliding mode surfaces, higher-order sliding mode surfacesorterminal sliding mode surfaces)by utilizing a discontinuous control, such that the state trajectory will move along the sliding mode surfaces and achieve a desired performance such as stability, tracking ability anddisturbance rejection capability.

Due to such nice features, SMCtheory has become a general control design method and SMC technique has been widely appliedin practicalsystems, such as electric drives and mechatronic systems, power electronic systems,manipulators, vehicles, and spacecraft. Moreover, severalcombinedSMC methodshave also been developed,such as adaptive SMC, backstepping SMC and disturbance observer based SMC,for awide kind of systems including nonlinear, time-varying, discrete-time, stochastic, and distributed systems.Thus, it is meaningfuland challenging to develop novel SMC theories and methodsfornonlinear systems due toitsbroad application potentialsin modern society. In this context, we wish to propose aspecialsession for the IECON 2017entitledRecent Developments in Sliding Mode Control: Theory and Industrial Applications.