Backstepping terminal sliding mode control of robot manipulator using radial basis functional neural networks

This paper examines an observer-based backstepping terminal sliding mode controller (BTSMC) for 3 degrees of freedom overhead transmission line de-icing robot manipulator (OTDIRM). The control law for tracking of the OTDIRM is formulated by the combination of BTSMC and neural network (NN) based approximation. For the precise trajectory tracking performance and enhanced disturbance rejection, NN-based adaptive observer backstepping terminal sliding mode control (NNAOBTSMC) is developed. To obviate local minima problem, the weights of both NN observer and NN approximator are adjusted off-line using particle swarm optimization. The radial basis function neural network-based observer is used to estimate tracking position and velocity vectors of the OTDIRM. The stability of the proposed control methods is verified with the Lyapunov stability theorem. Finally, the robustness of the proposed NNAOBTSMC is checked against input disturbances and uncertainties. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.