According to the multi-parameter and multi-variable control characteristics of air supply system for water-cooled proton exchange membrane fuel cell, a sliding mode active disturbance rejection control strategy was proposed based on feedback linearization theory. The control-oriented fourth-order nonlinear state space model of air supply system was established. Feedback linearization was used to decouple the whole system into two linear subsystems of cathode pressure and oxygen excess ratio. The sliding mode active disturbance rejection controllers were further designed for the two linear systems. The Matlab simulation was finally carried out. The results show that the proposed control strategy can achieve accurate tracking of the expected value control of stack cathode pressure and oxygen excess ratio under the variable load current. Compared with the traditional control strategies, the adjustment time and the overshoot of cathode pressure reduces by more than 30% and 47% respectively, and the adjustment time of oxygen excess ratio shortens by more than 67%.
