Variable structure control of manipulators with compliant joints

Abstract

This article studies the variable structure control of robot manipulators with flexible joints. A second order reference model and a smooth control law eliminate the reaching phase problems and the chattering usually present in the sliding mode. The results show a remarkable improvement of the stability over conventional variable structure controllers, while the algorithm maintains a low computational load that makes it well suited for microcomputer implementation.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>