Total sliding mode trajectory control of robotic manipulators

This paper presents a new trajectory control scheme for robotic manipulators using a variable structure control with sliding mode. The proposed control method totally eliminates the reaching phase of the prior variable structure control methods, in which the robot trajectory is affected by the uncertainties and disturbances. Therefore, a total sliding motion of the robot dynamics is guaranteed, which provides the invariance property for the entire robot dynamics. In other words, the desired performance designed on the nominal parts of the robot model can be exactly assured, even though the robot system is subject to uncertainties and disturbances.