Continuous time-varying feedback control of a robotic manipulator with base vibration and load uncertainty

To solve precise and fast position control of a robotic manipulator with base vibration and load uncertainty, a continuous time-varying feedback control method based on the implicit Lyapunov function is studied. This method is proportional–derivative-like in the form of control law, but its proportional and differential coefficients depend on the system Lyapunov function, which are differentiable functions of system error variables. In the motion process of the robotic manipulator, the system performance is influenced by three main nonlinear factors: system friction, balance torque, and base vibration. As the former two factors are available to be modeled and identified through experiments, compensation of the two terms is added to the proposed control law to reduce the effects of system nonlinearities to a certain extent. Experimental results show that the proposed control strategy is robust to base vibration and load uncertainty. Besides, the compensation of system friction and balance torque can shorten the positioning time by 27.3%, from 1.32 s to 0.96 s. Meanwhile, the positioning precision is guaranteed, which verifies the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.