PD control of robot manipulators with joint flexibility, actuators dynamics and friction (Q1805984)

This brief paper considers a proportional/derivative controller for robotic manipulators that simultaneously includes joint flexibility, dynamics of the actuators, and friction. The authors' controller synthesis uses the notion of passivity (previously explored by Nakayama and Arimoto), and requires only angular position and velocity measurements. Global convergence to a constant of the robots angular position is demonstrated. The authors note that if the stiffness (of the spring modeling the robot's joints) and the controller gain (of the proportional/derivative controller) are large enough, then the angular position converges to the desired value.