Neuro-Sliding Mode Endpoint Control of Flexible-link Manipulators

To improve the robustness and position precision of endpoint control of flexible-link manipulators(FLMs), a control strategy based on neuro-sliding mode(NSM)is proposed.Firstly,the dynamics model is partially linearized by input-output linearization method,so it is separated into two subsystems of input-output subsystem and internal dynamics subsystem.An NSM controller is designed to control the input-output subsystem while a states feedback controller is employed to stabilize the internal dynamics subsystem.Then,stability of the internal dynamics is analyzed,and satisfactory results are obtained in the simulation of controlling a 2DOF FLM.The results indicate that the presented method improves the robustness and position precision of the FLM system when model uncertainty is considered.