A partial state feedback controller for trajectory tracking of rigid-link flexible-joint robots using an observed backstepping approach

This paper presents a partial state feedback controller for a rigid-link flexible joint (RLFJ) robot using an observed integrator backstepping approach. The robot controller requires only link position and actuator position measurements, and eliminates the need for measuring link velocity and actuator velocity. The controller uses two exact knowledge, second-order nonlinear observers to estimate the link and actuator velocities. The overall control system achieves a semiglobal exponential stability result for the link position and velocity tracking errors as well as the velocity observation errors. Stability proof and simulation results of the proposed partial state feedback controller are included in the paper.