Gain scheduling based backstepping control for motion balance adjusting of a power-line inspection robot

This paper presents a gain scheduling backstepping control (GSBC) for motion balance adjusting of a power-line inspection (PLI) robot, which is an underactuted mechanical system of two degrees of freedom with one control input. First, a dynamic model of the motion balance adjusting of the PLI robot is constructed. Second, this model is linearized at a nominal operating point to overcome the computation infeasibility of the conventional backstepping technique. Finally, to extend the operation area of the closed-loop system further from the nominal operating point, an equilibrium manifold linearization model (EML model) is developed using a scheduling variable, and then the GSBC scheme is designed based on the EML model. The robust stability of the closed-loop system is ensured by the Lyapunov theorem. Simulation results show that the GSBC gives much better performance than that of the backstepping control, these results illustrate the feasibility of the proposed control scheme.