Decoupling control and disturbance rejection of mechanical manipulators with partially known dynamics

Abstract

It is known now that the dynamics of the motor drives of mechanical manipulators is of utmost importance and it is necessary to take this into account in achieving high control performance. At the same time, it is also known that the cross-coupled motor-manipulator dynamics is more complex and hence more difficult to be controlled than when only the manipulator dynamics is considered. In this paper, the dynamics of both the actuator and mechanical manipulator are considered together and a control strategy is developed for achieving ease of controller design and high control performance. By using the algorithm developed in this paper, not only can the highly complicated motor-manipulator dynamics be effectively controlled, but the motors are also made sensitive for sensing and compensating for the uncertain dynamics acting at manipulator joints. Furthermore, as a significant result, the modelling difficulty and control complexity of the manipulator dynamics can be significantly reduced.