Adaptive manipulator control: A case study

The author's previous work (1986, 1987) utilized the particular structure of manipulator dynamics to develop a simple, globally convergent adaptive controller for manipulator trajectory control problems. After summarizing the basic algorithm, they demonstrate the approach on a high-speed two-degree-of-freedom semi-direct-drive robot. They show that the dynamic parameters of the manipulator, assumed to be initially unknown, can be estimated within the first half second of a typical run, and that accordingly, the manipulator trajectory can be precisely controlled. These experimental results demonstrate that the adaptive controller enjoys essentially the same level of robustness to unmodeled dynamics as a PD (proportional and differential) controller, yet achieves much better tracking accuracy than either PD or computed-torque schemes. Its superior performance for high-speed operations, in the presence of parametric and nonparametric uncertainties, and its relative computational simplicity, make it an attractive option both for addressing complex industrial tasks, and for simplifying high-level programming of more standard operations