A global output feedback controller for flexible joint robots (Q1902580)

An output-feedback tracking controller for robots with elastic joints is discussed. A control scheme is based on measurements of position and velocity of each link. Tracking capabilities are guaranteed for any given condition and bounded reference trajectory with derivatives up to the order four. A certain degree of robustness of the proposed control scheme with respect to parameter uncertainty is ensured. The above properties are obtained by introducing a reduced-order observer for evaluating joints positions and velocities in the control scheme. Global uniform asymptotic stability of the observer is proved. The resulting control system can locally be made asymptotically stable. Convergence properties of the reduced observer are preserved in the closed-loop system. To demonstrate stability properties of the system, a special construction of a Lyapunov function for cascade systems has been used. Passivity properties of the robot dynamics can be accounted for in the derived equations.