Augmented sliding mode control for flexible link manipulators

A method of sliding mode control (SMC) is proposed for the control of flexible, nonlinear, and structural systems. The method departs from standard sliding mode control by dispensing with generalized accelerations during the control law design. Global, asymptotic stability of rigid body motion is maintained if knowledge on the bounds of the neglected terms exists. Furthermore, this method provides damping for the measured flexible body modes. This paper investigates an augmented SMC technique for slewing flexible manipulators. A conventional sliding surface uses a first order system including a combination of error and error rate terms. The augmented sliding surface includes an enhanced term that helps to reject flexible degrees-of-freedom. The algorithms are theoretically developed and experimentally tested on a slewing single flexible link robot. The test apparatus is instrumented with a strain gauge at the root and an accelerometer attached at the tip. A DC motor and encoder are used to servo the link from an initial position to a final position. A standard cubic polynomial is employed to generate the reference trajectories. The augmented SMC algorithm showed improved performance by reducing the flexible link tip oscillations.