Fuzzy adaptive dynamic surface control for a single-link flexible-joint robot

In this paper, a fuzzy adaptive controller is proposed for a single-link flexible-joint robot. Fuzzy logic systems are used to approximate unknown nonlinearities, and then a fuzzy state observer is designed to estimate the immeasurable states. By combining the adaptive backstepping design with dynamic surface control (DSC) technique, a fuzzy adaptive output-feedback backstepping control approach is developed. It is proved that all the signals of the resulting closed-loop system are semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded (SGUUB), and both the observer and tracking errors converge to a small neighborhood of the origin by appropriate choosing the design parameters. The simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller. Two key advantages of our scheme are that (i) the proposed control method does not require that the link velocity and actuator velocity of single-link flexible-joint robot be measured directly, and (ii) the problem of "explosion of complexity" is avoided.