PD with sliding mode control for trajectory tracking of robotic system

Good tracking performance is very important for trajectory tracking control of robotic systems. In this paper, a new model-free control law, called PD with sliding mode control law or PD-SMC in short, is proposed for trajectory tracking control of multi-degree-of-freedom linear translational robotic systems. The new control law takes the advantages of the simplicity and easy design of PD control and the robustness of SMC to model uncertainty and parameter fluctuation, and avoid the requirements for known knowledge of the system dynamics associated with SMC. The proposed control has the features of linear control provided by PD control and nonlinear control contributed by SMC. In the proposed PD-SMC, PD control is used to stabilize the controlled system, while SMC is used to compensate the disturbance and uncertainty and reduce tracking errors dramatically. The stability analysis is conducted for the proposed PD-SMC law, and some guidelines for the selection of control parameters for PD-SMC are provided. Simulation results prove the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed PD-SMC. It is also shown that PD-SMC can achieve very good tracking performances compared to PD control under the uncertainties and varying load conditions. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.