Globally convergent adaptive and robust control of robotic manipulators for trajectory tracking

This paper deals with a globally convergent adaptive and robust control of robotic manipulators for trajectory tracking in the presence of friction modelled as static nonlinearities. Two control loops are designed according to the cascade control scheme: (a) an inner adaptive control loop, which includes computed torque and PD control actions and friction compensation and (b) an outer robust control loop for unmodelled dynamics compensation. With reference to item (a), two friction compensation schemes are presented; one of them uses both the reference and the actual velocities, whereas the other employs only the actual velocity. Experimental tests carried out on a two-link SCARA manipulator are shown in order to validate the proposed control scheme.