A novel robust finite-time tracking control of uncertain robotic manipulators with disturbances

In this article, an innovative technique to design a robust finite-time state feedback controller for a class of uncertain robotic manipulators is proposed. This controller aims to converge the state variables of the system to a small bound around the origin in a finite time. The main innovation of this article is transforming the model of an uncertain robotic manipulator into a new time-varying form to achieve the finite-time boundedness criteria using asymptotic stability methods. First, based on prior knowledge about the upper bound of uncertainties and disturbances, an innovative finite-time sliding mode controller is designed. Then, the innovative finite-time sliding mode controller is developed for finite-time tracking of time-varying reference signals by the outputs of the system. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed control laws is illustrated for serial robotic manipulators with any number of links through numerical simulations, and it is compared with the nonsingular terminal sliding mode control method as one of the most powerful finite-time techniques.