CONTROL OF A ROBOTIC MANIPULATOR - A MODEL-FOLLOWING APPROACH

A model following approach has been used to produce a consistently goo d dynamic performance in a manipulator, whose effectiveness is illustr ated through the simulated responses of a two degree of freedom plant with variable inertia and fluctuating payload. The model is provided w ith the reference input and produces the ''ideal response'' that sets the standard to be followed by the plant which runs totally on the bas is of the differences of its states from those of the model. More erud itely, the plant is constrained by the model to emulate its states. A higher order plant was intentionally made to follow a lower order mode l to test the effectiveness of the controller. Satisfactory simulation results assure the usefulness of the scheme even under considerable p ayload fluctuations (+/-10%), and a 1:8 range of inertia variation tha t follows a quadratic law. This system is found to have a noteworthy p erformance robustness despite its simple and cost effective hardware i mplementation.