Robust Control of Robotic Manipulators Based on -synthesis

A robotic manipulator is modelled as a cantilever rotating Euler-Bernoulli beam. Two dynamic transfer functions are derived to describe beam tip motion and angular rotation in terms of the desired angular rotation. Torque disturbance, imprecision in the payload mass, unknown properties of the manipulator link are sources of uncertainty. The objective is to achieve a desired angular rotation while the vibration of manipulator tip is suppressed. The control input of the system is an external driving torque. The -synthesis control approach is used and an H optimal robust controller is developed based on the DK-iteration algorithm. Results show that the designed controller guarantees the robust stability and performance of the perturbed system against existing uncertainties. Consequently, disturbance rejection and trajectory tracking performance are achieved while the closed-loop system is stable.