Finite-time robust control of robotic manipulator with input deadzone and time-varying disturbance compensation

In this paper, the problem of trajectory tracking for robotic manipulator with input deadzone and time-varying disturbances is investigated using a continuous non-singular terminal sliding mode control (SMC). The robotic manipulator plays a vital role in industrial as well as many other applications. However, it faces numerous problems for accurate and fast trajectory tracking response in the presence of unknown uncertainties and external disturbances, that always have adverse affects on system closed-loop performance. This paper proposes a valid control design scheme to address the aforementioned practical issue. First, a non-singular terminal sliding mode surface is designed. Then, a robust control law is developed to guarantee the finite-time converges of system states to the origin. In addition, the sign function is substituted by saturation function, which can effectively reduce the chattering driven by the high-frequency switching item in the traditional SMC method. Moreover, the Lyapunov stability criterion is used to prove the stability of the closed-loop system. The efficiency of the designed control scheme is validated with numerical simulations.