Model Reference Adaptive Control of Mechanical Manipulators

Abstract The dynamic equations of mechanical manipulators are highly nonlinear and complex. Furthermore, the inertia characteristics of the manipulator depend on the payload which is often unknown. Because of these reasons, there is an increasing interest in adaptive control of mechanical manipulators. The objective of this paper is to present how recent model reference adaptive control (MRAC) schemes can be used for the dynamic control of mechanical manipulkators. The advantages of using the MRAC schemes are demonstrated by simulation results for a three degrees of freedom mechanical manipulator and experimental results for a one dimensional position control problem.