An Observer-Based Design for Robust Control of Robot Manipulators

In this paper, we describe a feedback linearization design for a class of nonlinear systems. The control system is an observer-based (full or reduced-order) design that utilizes estimates of some of the states both for the exact feedback linearization and the linear outer-loop controller. In particular, the approach advocated is applied to the dynamics of multi-link robot manipulators. Simulation studies and experimental results on a two-link planar arm are given and contrasted to show the applicability of the proposed methodology. Some practical issues for real-time implementation of the proposed feedback control algorithms are also presented.