A robust nonlinear control law that incorporates the manipulator dynam
ics as well as dynamics of actuators is developed in this article. The
inertial parameters of the manipulator and the electrical parameters
of the actuators are considered to be of uncertain values. In contrast
to the known methods, the presented design procedure is based on less
restrictive assumptions regarding the characteristics of uncertaintie
s. We just assume that unknown parameters are bounded, which is eviden
tly true for any robotic system. Exponential stability of the develope
d controller is proved by the Lyapunov method. (C) 1996 John Wiley & S
ons, Inc.