A Simple Robust Control Scheme for Robot Manipulators with Only Joint Positon Measurements

In this paper, it is shown that the point-to-point motion control of rigid robot manipulators can be achieved by a simple fixed control law which only requires the measurements of the joint positions, unlike most of robot motion control where the joint velocities are invariably needed. Apart from some commonly used assumptions about the manipulator dynamic equation, the control scheme can dispense with any modelling information and yet achieve global stability. Moreover, (if the joint configuration is free from singularity), the control strategy can also be used in task space control without any extra technical difficulty, except for the on-line calculation of the Jacobian matrix. The robustness property of the control law against parasitic dynamics from the driving system is discussed.