Virtual decomposition controller for flexible-joint robot manipulators with non-full-state feedback

Abstract

In this article, a tracking controller for flexible-joint robot manipulators with non-full-state feedback is investigated based on virtual decomposition control (VDC) theory. First, virtual decomposition principle is applied to decouple the entire system of flexible-joint robot manipulator into rigid-link subsystems and flexible-joint subsystems; then, subcontrollers are designed correspondingly for each link or joint subsystem. Importantly, to realize the closed-loop tracking control without state measurements on the link side, an extended Kalman filter is designed to achieve the proposed VDC approach via non-full-state feedback. In addition, strict stability analysis of the control system is given according to the theory of virtual stability and Lyapunov stability. Finally, validation example is provided to verify the proposed control approach.

New time delay estimation-based virtual decomposition control for n-DoF robot manipulator

“…The dynamic interaction between two adjacent subsystems is handled by virtual power flow (VPF), which leads to prove the virtual stability. For each subsystem, a subcontroller is designed independently, while the stability of the global system is rigorously maintained [22], [24], [26]- [30]. The obtained dynamic equation of each subsystem is relatively simple, which can reduce the computation burden of the system.…”