Super-twisting based integral sliding mode control applied to a rotary flexible joint robot manipulator

In this paper, a single link flexible joint robot is used to evaluate a tracking trajectory control and vibration reduction by a super-twisting integral sliding mode (ST-ISMC). Normally, the system with joint flexibility has inevitably some uncertainties and external disturbances. In conventional sliding mode control, the robustness property is not guaranteed during the reaching phase. This disadvantage is addressed by applying ISMC that eliminates a reaching phase to ensure the robustness from the beginning of a process. To design this controller, the linear quadratic regulator (LQR) controller is first designed as the nominal control to decide a desired performance for both tracking and vibration responses. Subsequently, discontinuous control was traditionally built by ISMC with a constant reaching law to reject the uncertainties and disturbances acted in the system. To avoid the chattering phenomenon that appears in the classical control law of ISMC, super-twisting is used here instead of constant reaching law. Finally, the comparative assessment is accomplished in order to confirm the superiorities of proposed method. Numerical simulation shows the effectiveness of ST-ISMC over LQR and ISMC in terms of the tracking responses, robustness achievement and chattering reduction.