Nonlinear tracking control for a lightweight flexible robot

Abstract

A robust nonlinear approach to the trajectory tracking control for a lightweight flexible robot manipulator is presented. On the basis of an approximated finite-dimensional nonlinear model, the proposed control law is derived using sliding mode techniques. For the purpose of experimental comparison, we present additionally a two-time scale controller derived using singular perturbation methods. The performance of the presented tracking controllers is demonstrated by experiments carried out with the flexible robot arm, an experimental setup available in our Institute Laboratory.