Robust Tracking and Cruise Control of a Class of Robotic Systems

This paper presents a controller for a class of robotic systems, based on a first-order sliding mode with a particular noninvariant, nonconnected surface. With this control it is possible to regulate the position such that the velocity remains, as long as possible, at a specified value until the system is close to the desired position. The properties inherited from the sliding modes make the control exhibit a high robustness to external perturbations and low sensitivity to system parameter variations. It is shown that the desired speed is reached in a finite time and the system converges exponentially to the desired position. This controller can be applied to systems described by a classical model of a fully actuated, n -DOF mechanical system, which could be decoupled via a preliminary decoupling control. To illustrate the theoretical results, the proposed control technique is applied to a Cartesian robot, simulated numerically. Moreover, to show the effectiveness of this strategy, some physical experiments on a rotational (mechanical) device were performed.