Robust Control of a Multi-joint Manipulator Using a Sliding Observer

Abstract

In this paper, a robust control design is developed for multi-joint manipulators using a sliding observer. The sliding observer, the basic idea for which was proposed by Slotine et al., is introduced to estimate the angular velocity of the links under the disturbance input. The sufficient condition for a sliding mode to exist and for the state to reach a sliding plane is derived in this paper. The feedback control is designed by use of the estimated value of the angular velocity θ^·A relay control law is shown to ensure the robustness concerning the disturbance inputs. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, a computer simulation is performed for a two-joint manipulator.