Coupled error super-twisted sliding mode active fault-tolerant control for robotic system with actuator fault

This paper focuses on a robotic system with actuator fault and presents a sliding mode active fault-tolerant control method based on coupled position error. The actuator fault is first detected by a fault alerter with a predetermined threshold. After the fault is successfully detected, the fault is estimated by a fault observer. Coupling the position error with the weighted position error of different joints, a non-singular fast terminal sliding mode surface is constructed, and a super-twisted algorithm is introduced to design a coupled error super-twisted sliding mode controller (CESSMC). Furthermore, the fault estimation is incorporated with the CESSMC to accomplish the coupled error super-twisted sliding mode active fault-tolerant control. The stability and the finite-time convergence of the system are theoretically proved. Simulations and experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The proposed method can achieve the position error convergence in finite time and reduce chattering in the control input. With the tight coupling between position error and weighted position error, the fault compensation effect and trajectory tracking accuracy can be improved.