Secure control for uncertain nonlinear cyber–physical systems: A prescribed-time scheme based on temporal scaling

In this paper, the prescribed-time secure control is explored for uncertain nonlinear cyber–physical systems through temporal scaling transformation and gain control technique, where the nonlinearity is more generic than common linear growth conditions due to the presence of large uncertainties and low-order states. Given that security risks exist in open networks, the impact of deception attacks is considered, whereas, this prevents the gain control technique from being applied directly to control design. To lift the restriction, a novel auxiliary system is firstly constructed to cleverly turn the secure control to the boundedness control of the auxiliary system. Next, a crucial bridge, temporal scaling transformation, is employed to transform the control issue in the finite time into infinite time, which opens up more possibilities for solving studied issues. Then, by the gain control technique, a Zeno-free secure control strategy with dynamically adjustable triggering mechanism is devised, which successfully ensures the convergence of system states within the prescribed time meanwhile counteracting deception attacks. Further, an improved nonlinearity, i.e. containing both low-order and high-order states, is discussed. Particularly, the proposed control strategies not only avoid real-time control updates, but also the gains therein handle system nonlinearities efficiently. Eventually, the validity of major results is verified via simulation examples.