Second Order Sliding Mode-Based Output Feedback Tracking Control for Uncertain Robot Manipulators

In this paper, a robust output feedback tracking control scheme for motion control of uncertain robot manipulators without joint velocity measurement based on a second‐order sliding mode (SOSM) observer is presented. Two second‐order sliding mode observers with finite time convergence are developed for velocity estimation and uncertainty identification, respectively. The first SOSM observer is used to estimate the state vector in finite time without filtration. However, for uncertainty identification, the values are constructed from the high switching frequencies, necessitating the application of a filter. To estimate the uncertainties without filtration, a second SOSM‐based nonlinear observer is designed. By integrating two SOSM observers, the resulting observer can theoretically obtain exact estimations of both velocity and uncertainty. An output feedback tracking control scheme is then designed based on the observed values of the state variables and the direct compensation of matched modelling uncertainty using their identified values. Finally, results of a simulation for a PUMA560 robot are shown to verify the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.