An Adaptive Sliding-mode Controller for Flexible-joint Manipulator

This paper represents a method of designing adaptive sliding mode control law for a class of flexible joint manipulators. The method aims at developing and deploying a controller for the system in case of existing disturbances in the process of generating control signal for the actuator. For drivers and motors in low-cost flexible-joint manipulator systems, there are always frictions and torque deviations when they operate. The proposed controller is designed to eliminate the impact of such disturbances on the tracking performance of the manipulator. To validate the design method, the stability of the control law is examined by using Lyapunov method. The performance is evaluated by simulation results as well as real-time responses of the custom-developed system; in addition, they are compared to ones from the counterparts. © 2023 IEEE.