Robust Feedback Linearization for Serial Robots

Serial robots are widely used nowadays with various application domains ranging from industrial to medical. The dynamic models of such robots can be viewed as input-affine nonlinear systems. For this class of systems, exact feedback linearization is used to further apply linear control techniques. The main drawback of the previous method is the necessity to know the exact model and its parameters. The current paper extends the well-known exact feedback linearization technique to the robust feedback linearization for the special case of serial robots. The solution consists in adding an extra robust controller which ensures both robust stability and robust performance for the given uncertain nonlinear system in a desired region of attraction. The proposed method is illustrated on a 2R serial robot.