On The Control of Mechanical Manipulators

Abstract The dynamic performance of computer-controlled manipulators is directly linked to the formulation of the dynamic model of manipulators and its corresponding control law. Several approaches are available in formulating the dynamic models of mechanical manipulators and most notably of these are the Lagrange-Euler and the Newton-Euler formulations. This paper describes an efficient position plus derivative control in joint space for a PUMA robot arm whose dynamic equations of motion are formulated by the Newton-Euler method. The controller compensates the inertia loading, the nonlinear coupling reaction forces between joints and the gravity loading effects. Using a PDP 11-/45 computer the controller equation can be computed in 3 ms which is sufficient for real-time control. Computer simulation of the performance of the control law is included for discussion.