Load transportation by dual arm robot using sliding mode control

In this study, a sliding mode controlled dual arm robotic system was designed. Such multi-arm, collaborative and synchronous robots typically are employed in hazardous situations such as radioactive materials transport explosives disposal and industrial applications. In the present study, a high performance, robust, non-chattering sliding mode controller (SMC) was developed for the purpose of safe load handling, transportation and trajectory realization. First, dynamic equations of robot/load interaction were derived. Then, the robust SMC was designed for the dual arm robotic system. In order to test the robustness of the proposed SMC, parameter variations and external disturbances were introduced to the system. Furthermore, for comparative purposes, the conventional and widely used, PID controller was also applied to the dual arm robot. Significantly, it was found that the SMC made smaller trajectory tracking errors than the PID controller. An overall analysis of the numerical results confirmed that the dual-arm robotic systems with the proposed SMC can safely and effectively be used in hazardous applications.